KFP Oneshots
by FFcrazy15
Summary: As title implies. Includes 'Cat Toy' and 'Cookie Thief' for the first 2 chapters. Humor, romance, drama, and a lot more!  Note: I will not be doing any Ti/Shi, Vi/Po, or Ti/Tai, and ABSOLUTELY NO Shi/Po  mainly because Shi/Po creeps me out .
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

She stared at it as it swung back… and forth… and back… and forth… and-

She pounced! Catching the little bauble in her hands, she mouthed it for a moment, before she let it go, batting it between her paws and yipping happily.

"I'm gonna getcha! I'm gonna getcha!" she said in a little kid voice, pouncing again. She giggled and hit it. "You are mine! You are mine and I will eat you! I will eat you, you fuzzy little mouse thing!" She fake-growled at it. "But I'll play with you first! Yes I will! Yes I will!"

So focused was she on the object of her attention that she didn't even notice the four guys laughing silently just outside her door. "This is hilarious!" Monkey said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Yeah, Po. Buying that cat toy in the village and putting it in her room overnight was _genius!_" Mantis agreed, and Crane nodded beside him.

"Aw, it wasn't that smart," Po said modestly, before cracking up once again at the tiger master's antics.

"I am Tigress! And I will catch you!" she batted it with her paw, then drew back to the other corner of her room. She stared at it as it began to swing again, waiting… waiting…

She raced forward, more ferocious this time, and batted the small bauble so hard it flew off the string. She pounced on it, rolling on the ground and letting out a few happy "Mew!"s.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Po and the others outside her door, laughing. It only took her a moment to realize what had happened.

"PO!" she roared.

"Time to run!" Monkey advised.

"Oh yeah!" Mantis agreed, turning around and starting to hurry down the halls. Crane flew overhead, and Po followed behind has fast as he could.

"Oh no you don't! You can't get away from me! I'm going to get you!" Tigress shouted, chasing after them.

"Ever notice how it's more entertaining when she's saying it to the toy?" Po whimpered.

**A/N: I don't know why I wrote this, I just felt like writing something where Tigress played with a cat toy. : D Maybe this would be good for the new KFP show?**


	2. Chapter 2 The Cookie Thief Shifu!

The Cookie Thief

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

A/N: I give any producers in charge of designing the new KFP show 'Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness' permission to use these as possible shows for the series (not that they probably ever will. :( )

Shifu eyed the top shelf, or, more specifically, the jar on it.

Said jar was round, clay, and very high up. It was also filled with perhaps the most priceless treasure in the Jade Palace: Monkey's almond cookies.

Almost everyone in said palace had tasted one of the cookies. Monkey occasionally gave them out as a treat after dinner, and if you were persistent, you could evade his booby traps and steal one or two. However, Shifu had never stolen even one (he had always considered it to be beneath him), and as he had never given Monkey reason to believe he would want one, the red panda had never actually tasted one of the famous treats.

He detested himself for doing this; lying to his students and saying he was going to meditate, where actually he was just going to steal the jar of cookies. But, grandmaster or no grandmaster, he wanted an almond cookie and by all that was Kung Fu he was going to have one!

He propped up Oogway's staff and jumped on top of it. He ducked suddenly as a number of acupuncture needles came flying at him; the games were on.

Shifu jumped every which way, dodging and blocking every attack. He flipped over the block of wood that swung at him, blocked the cloth boxing glove that jabbed out from inside a cupboard, and destroyed the metal trap that tried to catch him. "KYAH! HEIS!"

He landed on the top shelf and looked at the jar: it seemed to glow with a golden light. It was his, all his.

He picked it up and opened the lid. Inside was his treasure: a dozen almond cookies, baked to perfection. He took a step back.

Suddenly, the part of the shelf he was standing on flipped down as an unseen latch came off, executing the final booby trap: a slide-style trap door right onto the floor below. Shifu fell, still clutching at the cookie jar.

WHUMPF! He landed in the flour sack, the white powder poofing up into a white cloud. There was a moment's silence, before he let out a frustrated string of indistinguishable words that, had they been understandable through the flour in his mouth, probably would have made many a mother wash out the children's tongues just for listening.

**KFP**

All six students stared as the white-covered Shifu walked out of the kitchen, something held behind his back. Said students, heading back from a hard day's training, all stopped and stared.

"Whoa! Master Shifu, did you get caught in a random blizzard or something?" Po asked the red panda.

"Hmph. Very funny," Shifu grumbled. "By the way, almond cookies for all." He pulled the jar out from behind his back and threw one at each of his students, before walking away.

"Wow. Dude, did you do that?" Mantis whispered to Monkey.

"Yeah, I put a trapdoor on the top shelf. But it was for you, not Master Shifu," the primate said, sounding stunned.

"You are so dead," Tigress said matter-of-factly, though she was smirking. "Master looks like someone decided to turn him into a powdered doughnut."

"I think it's flour, not sugar," Viper pointed out.

"At least he didn't punish you," Po said.

"Oh, Monkey, by the way," Shifu called back. "Your obstacle course was very well designed. You obviously put a lot of work into it; therefore you should appreciate running through the entirety of mine tomorrow. Seven times."

Monkey gulped.


	3. Chapter 3 Tofu

Tofu

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

"Thanks for coming, Mr. Wu!" Po called after the last customer as he walked out of the open-air restaurant.

"No problem, Dragon Warrior!" the pig said, waving his goodbye and walking away.

Po grinned and scooped up a few empty bowls still on the table, then glanced up at the sky. "Aw man, I got to get going, or Master Shifu's will have a heart attack!" He rushed over to the kitchen and put the bowls in the washbasin. "Dad, I've got to go."

"Oh, that's fine, Po!" the old goose said, smiling. "You go on your way; I'll finish up here!"

"Thanks, dad. Later!" He hurried out of the restaurant and down the streets of the village towards the thousand stairs.

He was just at the base of them before he remembered that he'd forgotten the money he'd earned from his tips back at the shop. "Dang it. If I don't hurry, Shifu's going to murder me at training tomorrow." He turned and ran all the way back to the shop.

"Hey, dad, I forgot my-" he stopped short as he realized the goose was talking to someone. And not just any someone, either. This someone was tall, strong, and striped black and orange.

He pulled back behind the stone wall and peeked around the edge of the circular entrance, listening.

"Thank you again, Mr. Ping," Tigress said, her voice barely audible. "I have your pay right here…" She handed the goose a few golden coins.

"Oh no, Master Tigress, this is far too much-"

"Take it. You deserve it, for the risks you're taking."

Mr. Ping still looked worried. "And Po still doesn't know?"

They were talking about him! He listened closer.

"No. Nobody does. Believe me, if the Dragon Warrior knew… But it's the only thing I know that helps."

The goose nodded and handed the feline something small and rectangular. It was about the size of a brick and wrapped in dark black cloth. "You take care, Master Tigress."

"You too, Mr. Ping." She turned around.

"Oh crap," the panda whispered to himself. This wasn't good; if she saw him, he'd be so dead for eavesdropping.

Tigress walked out of the noodle restaurant. Suddenly, she caught a scent. Sniffing the air, she glanced around. Nothing.

"I'm getting paranoid," she muttered to herself. "He lives here; of course it would smell like him." She walked away.

Po peeked out from behind the ingredient deliver baskets. "She's up to something," he said, "And I'm going to figure out what."

**KFP**

Po followed Tigress around all week, trying to figure out what was going on. She didn't act any different, nor did she go anywhere out of the ordinary again.

On the evening of the seventh day, Po was really freaking out. "What if she's an assassin who's just pretending to be Tigress? Or maybe an alien has taken over Tigress' body! Or maybe- maybe she's a spy, and she got my dad to be a spy, too! Yeah, they're spying on me for- for who? And maybe dad gave her a knockout, and she's going to take me to her leader! That's got to be it!" He was literally shaking now, which was ironic considering he was sitting on the floor in his room, and the entire floor was shaking with him. "I've got to get her before she gets me!"

He quickly walked out of his room and into the barrack hallway. Creeping along the floor, he peeked into Tigress' room.

She wasn't there.

"Okay. Okay, she has to be outside. I'll just go sneak up on her and tackle her or something." He tiptoed to the door and pushed it open.

Tigress was standing not too far away, just looking up at the sky.

"There she is," he said to himself. "Okay, on the count of three." He took a deep breath. "One… two… three!"

Tigress tried to pick out the different constellations. "The ox… the boar… and there's the tiger… GAH!"

Something big and heavy slammed her into the ground. Cursing herself for not paying enough attention, she kicked the attacker away and jumped back up, before landing bodily on her opponent and jabbing her knee right into his solar plexus.

"Ow…" the attacker moaned.

She growled, and then stopped. "Po?" Then, she returned back to the growling. "You've got five seconds to tell me why you attacked me, panda, before I kick you into next Wednesday!"

Po groaned again, and then said, "Yeah? Well then how will you bring me to your leader?"

Tigress blinked. "My… leader?"

"Yeah! You and your little spy network! You're going to knock me out and bring me to the head honcho to kill me! You've got spies everywhere; you've even got my dad in on this!"

Her eyes narrowed again, though this time with concern. "Po, are you feeling all right?"

"No, I'm not feeling all right! How can I be feeling all right when you and my dad are plotting against me!"

"Plotting against you? Why would we do that?"

"I don't know! Maybe you wanna make me into a bad guy or take my brain or-"

"Po Ping, you are officially scaring me now, and if this is a joke, so help me I will throw you down the stairs! What is going on?"

Po sighed. "Look, I caught you talking to my dad about a week ago. You said that he was taking huge risks or something, and then you paid him. He asked if I knew, and you said that if I ever did, I don't know, something bad would happen! And then he gave you something wrapped in black cloth. I don't know what it is, and it's been driving me insane all week!"

Tigress rolled her eyes and got off of him. "Po, come with me."

She led him back into the barracks to her room. Lifting up a floorboard, she pulled out the same little block of whatever that he'd seen his dad hand her a week ago. "Is this what you're talking about?" she said, her voice very low.

"Yeah! What is-" he stopped as she unwrapped it. "Tofu?" he said, surprised. He sniffed it. "Blegh! And it smells like-"

"Meat," she finished. "It smells like fresh meat."

He stared at her, obviously not getting it. "Ooookay…"

"I'm a tiger. Tigers like meat. Does it make sense now?"

"Uh… No."

She sighed in annoyance. "Let me make it very simple: my instincts tell me to eat meat, but I don't happen to enjoy eating other people. Your dad is the best cook in the village, and somehow he manages to make meat-tasting tofu. I go down to his shop once a month, get a little block of tofu, and come back here."

"Oh," Po said, still processing all this. "Okay, I guess I get it… but why didn't you tell me?"

Tigress looked away. "I didn't want you to think of me any differently," she said, her voice carefully controlled.

"Differently? Why would I do that?"

"Most people don't get the urge to bite their friends' legs off, and for whatever reason, they seem to forget that tigers eat meat. When they find out that I'm a carnivore…" She sighed. "Po, I wanted you to look at me the same way you did before." She still wasn't looking at him.

"How do I look at you?"

She stiffened slightly, and then turned. "Po, you look at me in a way that says you aren't afraid of me," she said softly. "You see me as if I'm a real person, and not just Master Tigress to you."

"Of course that's how I see you!" Po insisted. "Tigress, we're friends, remember? I mean, sure, I respect your abilities and stuff, but I'm not scared that you're going to attack me or anything."

"Most people are," she said matter-of-factly. "All they ever see is a Kung Fu master that is always ready to take down an enemy. They don't think that I've got a soul… And if they knew that I bought meat-flavored tofu once a month, they'd stop admiring me and just be flat-out terrified." She put the tofu down beneath the floorboard again, then straightened up and said, "You should probably leave. Shifu would murder you if he knew you were in here."

"Yeah, that's true," the panda said, grinning. "Man, if he caught us in here, he'd probably chuck me off the edge of a cliff or something."

She chuckled and walked with him over to the door. As she opened it, he said, "Tigress? Just so you know, I'm _always_ going to admire you, no matter what kind of crazy stuff you eat. And even if everyone thinks you're hard core, I know you've got a really soft heart, right here." He gently patted her chest, right above her heart.

She smiled slightly. "Thank you, Po."

He grinned back and pulled away. "Good night, Master Tigress." He turned and left.

"Good night, Dragon Warrior," she said softly, almost to herself. She turned around and went back inside her room.


	4. Chapter 4 Ghosts of Festival Past

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

A/N: I said in 'The Yin and the Yang' that Shifu and Ah-lam met when they were about sixteen. As conceited as I feel writing this (it makes me feel so horribly vain to write a story about my own OC), I just can't get this thought out of my head, so here goes!

_**Jade Palace, about 45-50 years ago…**_

"Pardon me, coming through!"

The young gray feline raced through the halls of the Jade Palace, cursing herself in Mandarin under her breath. She burst through the front doors into the cold night.

"Oh damn, I hope the snow didn't cover it up already. Master will _kill_ me if he finds out I lost it!" she muttered, dropping to her knees.

"Did you lose something?"

She jerked up, looking around wildly. "Who are you? Show yourself!"

"I _am_ showing myself. Look behind you, dimwit."

She looked over her shoulder, surprised. A red panda about her age was standing there. "That's not exactly showing yourself, and I'll have you know that I am not a dimwit."

"Hm. In any case, I say the same as before: did you lose something?"

She glared at him. "Yes, I did, and I do _not_ need your help!"

"Are you sure? I'm closer to the ground than you."

"Yes, but I can see at night."

"Why don't we both look?" he suggested. "We'd be more likely to find it."

"That's true… I lost my _ya sheng _coin*. My master gave it to me not too long ago. He'll be furious if he finds out I lost it." She gently brushed aside some snow. "My name is Ah-lam. Yours?"

"I am Shifu. Shifu Jin."

She nodded. They searched for another few moments, before she said, "So, why are you out here?"

"I was dying in there. If I have to listen to one more duck sing like that, I think I'll tear my ears off."

She laughed. "And eat them."

"And eat them," he agreed. Suddenly, he bent down and picked something up off the ground, just near the edge of the cliff. He held it out to her. "I would believe that this is yours?"

She took it from him and examined it. "Yes, this is it." She reached under her cloak and tucked it into her vest. She instinctively winced as she felt the still-healing scars underneath; it had only been a few weeks since Ju-long had attacked her.

"Ah-lam? Is something wrong?" Shifu said, sounding concerned.

"No. No, nothing's wrong," she said, shaking her head slightly and faking a smile.

Shifu looked at her, not quite believing it, and then shrugged. "Well, as you want it."

"Thank you, Shifu," she said graciously, and bowed to him.

He bowed back. "No trouble, Ah-lam. It was nice to meet you."

"And I you." She glanced back at the palace. "I suppose we have to go back in?"

He sighed. "I believe so. But I'd much rather stay out here. You know, where there aren't so many rules and you don't have to remember twenty different forks?"

"I suppose we'll like it when we get older," she said, smiling.

"Hmph. When I get older, I will ban all singing ducks from the Winter Festival. Permanently."

"And for that I will thank you."

He winced and said, "We'd better go back in, or we'll be missed. Oogway's usually pretty nice, but he can be really harsh sometimes, as well."

"Yeah, same with Master Anmíng." She looked around and smiled slightly. "Everything's so white. It's beautiful."

"Yes." The snow drifted down lightly around them, and as they listened, they could faintly hear laughter coming from the village below.

"Do you ever wish that you were down there with them, like before?" she said, after a moment.

"Yes, though I can't say I've ever had the pleasure of going to a more family-oriented Winter Festival. My father was fairly strict."

"Same. But it looks so… warm. And friendly."

He smiled slightly, nodded, and then turned around. "Let's go back in, before someone comes to get us."

"Agreed." They walked back to the front doors of the palace and, casting a last wistful look to the white world and the falling snow, opened the doors and went inside.

*** These coins, also known as 'flower coins' or 'play coins,' were supposed to bring good luck and deflect misfortune ( **http: / primaltrek**. com/ ).**


	5. Chapter 5 Cute

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

A/N: This is not related in any way at all to EOTD, TYATY, or FM, so Shifu's family/past is a lot different.

It was only nine-o-clock, and yet Shifu was beginning to get worried. He had given his students the day off, and they had yet to come back. Even Tigress was still out for the night, and, as much as he hated to admit it, he was worried about her.

"Will she- they be back soon? I didn't set a curfew… This was a terrible idea, I shouldn't have given her- _them_ the day off…"

The longer he sat there attempting to meditate, the farther his mind went from the likely truth: that they were just having a bowl of noodles at Mr. Ping's and visiting the market or some such. By the time the next five minutes had passed, the red panda was freaking out. He was picturing his students captured by bandits; them unconscious while some villain raged through the streets; Po and Tigress, off on their own and-

He winced and inwardly cursed his vivid mind. Standing, he ran through the grounds of the Jade Palace and down the thousand steps into the town.

His first place to check was Mr. Ping's. _I swear to every god I know, if that panda's done something with my daughter..._

"Ah, Master Shifu, such an honor," Mr. Ping said as the red panda walked into the noodle shop.

"Mr. Ping," Shifu said, bowing hurriedly. "Have you seen my students?"

"Oh, no, not for a while. Actually, I think they headed over to your home…"

"My… home?"

"Your first home, where you lived as a child. Apparently your mother still lives there."

"I- I see," the red panda said, really not getting it at all. "Thank you, Mr. Ping."

"No trouble, no trouble." The old goose went back to cooking as the Grandmaster left.

He hurried through the streets of the town, tracing the familiar path to his childhood home. It had been a year or two since his last visit, and he was feeling slightly guilty.

Shifu stopped in front of the last house and hesitantly knocked on the door. It was a moment, before the door opened, revealing Monkey.

"Oh, Master Shifu, it's you," the primate said, surprised and slightly guilty. Shifu picked up on this and narrowed his eyes.

"Monkey? What is going on?"

Monkey stifled a laugh. "Nothing."

Shifu's gave him a disbelieving look and just pushed past the primate. As he entered the main hallway, he began to hear voices. Going down the hall to the door at the end, he started to distinguish what it said. At the final door, he pushed it open and stepped inside.

"Oh, and there's the boy in question!" an elderly red panda lady said. "Come in, son, come in. And you too, Master Monkey!"

Shifu didn't, though Monkey did. "Mother, what are you doing?"

"Oh, just telling your lovely students about how sweet you were when you were little. Oh, look, this one's my favorite!" She showed them a small painting not unlike the ones Po's dad had of him. Immediately, the six students broke out into laughter. Shifu's mother smiled sweetly. "Wasn't he just adorable?"

"Uh-huh," Po agreed, laughing so hard he was nearly crying. "Master Shifu, you were pretty darn cute!"

"Give me that," the red panda said, irritated. His mother handed him the picture.

A tiny red panda was sitting on the floor, sucking his thumb on one end and holding his fluffy tail with the other. Shifu's face burned a bright red as he handed the picture back. The look on his face made his students all laugh even harder, which then caused his eye to twitch.

"And then, of course, there's this one. This was the day that Shifu had a little 'accident.'"

"Mother!" Shifu snapped, while his students howled with laughter. "I am taking my students home _this_ _instant_, and next time you have company, I would appreciate it if you didn't take out the painting album!"

"Oh, well. I suppose my fun is over. Goodbye, dearies, and good luck with your training!"

Shifu nearly had to drag the six of them out of the house by their ears, they were laughing so hard. Po was the last to go.

"Aw, come on, Master Shifu!" he said in between guffaws. "I wanna see more pictures."

"And _I _want to see you climbing the stairs to the Jade Palace, panda, before I throw you up them myself!" the red panda said sharply, at which Po quickly shut his mouth.

All the way home, he could hear his students whispering behind him. He was thankful when they finally got back to the Palace, and he could go to his own personal quarters.

At least, he was thankful until he woke up the next morning with directions to the palace bathrooms on his pillow.

**A/N: Stupid and pointless, I know, but hopefully it made you grin. Red pandas are actually very cute; go to Google Images and look up 'Cute Red Pandas.' You'll go 'awww!' for sure!**


	6. Chapter 6 What You Never Knew

What You Never Knew

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

You never knew that I used to come into your room late at night and gently brush your fur with my fingertips, careful to never wake you, because that was the only time I could love you without the risk of endangering you.

You never knew that the 'old' set of dolls I let you keep, which we found when cleaning out the one of the Palace's closets, I had purchased only just that morning for you and hid it there.

You never knew that the night after your first time punching ironwood trees, I snuck in while you slept to put healing salve on your knuckles.

You never knew that when you'd wake up from hysterics, I used to lull you back to sleep with my flute, though you remembered nothing in the morning.

You never knew that I hid a few coins in your small purse one market day, so that when I took you down to the village, you had just enough money to buy that calligraphy set you wanted.

You never knew that the small, unexpected items you found in the rooms I'd make you clean each year before the Winter Festival were planted there by me.

You never knew that, though I didn't mention it, I never forgot the date of your adoption.

You never knew how, when you destroyed your first Wooden Warrior at twelve years of age, I glowed with pride on the inside.

You never knew that I saw the shame and hurt on your face when I lectured you on your mistakes, and that it broke my heart on the inside.

And for the longest time, you never knew that I loved you, because I was afraid that my love would only destroy you.

But…

You knew how happy I was for you, the day you got married.

You knew how proud I was when you and Po came home from Bao Gu, a tiny blanket-wrapped lion cub in your arms.

You knew that I chuckled when the cub nearly pulled your ear off, and that I laughed full out when you glared at me for it.

You knew that I smiled as I watched you teach him his first sequence.

You knew how I scowled (though truthfully was very entertained) as you tried to explain to the boy why "Ye-ye had such a fluffy tail."

You knew that I was proud when you and the Dragon Warrior became known as the greatest fighters in all of China.

And most importantly, you know that I still am proud of you now, proud beyond measure.

And now… now my time has come, just as my master's had before me.

You seem stunned, as if you didn't expect this. As if you thought you had more time.

"I'm sorry. But it's time for me to go."

"No!" you insist. Po echoes this from beside you. "Master, we can't do this without you."

"You can, and you will. I have complete faith in the two of you."

"But we don't! Master- Father- we need you here with us!"

"No, you do not. You only need to trust in yourselves and your students as I have trusted in you. My daughter," at this, I bow to you, "And my son-in-law." I bow to Po. "Until we meet again."

You swallow, holding back tears. "Yes, Father," you whisper. Both you and the panda bow to me, and I bow back, then hand the peach-wood staff to you and him

And suddenly, hundreds of peach petals from the tree lift from the branches and gather around me, become me. I am vanishing, and yet somehow becoming more real.

I have always been proud of you you. And I will always be watching over you. You, my beloved daughter.


	7. Chapter 7 'Feel the Thundah'

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

**A/N: I know that they didn't know about the whole 'light travels faster' thing in ancient China. Let's ignore that for a moment.**

"Yuh-huh!"

"No, Po, you can't!"

"Of course you can feel thunder!" the panda said for the millionth time.

All afternoon long and into the evening, the four guys of the Jade Palace (Shifu not included) had been having the dumbest argument ever: whether or not you could actually 'feel the thundah.'

Viper and Tigress just watched them, slightly bored but mostly annoyed. They'd long ago realized that when something of this amount of stupidity was argued over, said fight could go on for hours, days, even weeks. And this one was bound to be a big one.

"I agree with Po," Monkey said (it was currently Monkey and Po vs. Mantis and Crane). "When you hear thunder, sometimes you can feel it under your feet."

"Yes, but not _all_ the time," Crane pointed out.

"You can feel lightning when you get struck by it, but you can't feel thunder!" Mantis insisted.

"Have _you_ ever been hit by lightning?" Monkey asked.

"No."

"Then how do you know that you can feel it?"

"Because you can feel something when it hits you!"

"I still think that you can feel thunder," Po said.

"That is it!" Tigress shouted, finally losing her temper. "They're the same thing! Lightning is what you see, and thunder is what you hear. You see lighting before you hear thunder because light travels faster than sound. _They are the exact same thing!_"

The four males stared at her, surprised. There was a moment's silence, before Po said, "No way, Tigress. And besides, I _know_ that someone can feel thunder!" And everyone was back to fighting.

With a growl, she face-palmed and said to Viper, "I give up. These people will never stop being idiots."

"Nope," the snake agreed. "Let's go to my room; at least there we won't have to listen to them." They left.

It was a while before the boys noticed. "Hey… where'd Tigress and Viper go?" Po said eventually.

The other three shrugged. "Hey, can you believe that she actually thought thunder and lightning were the same thing?" Monkey said.

"I wonder who came up with a stupid idea like that," Mantis agreed, shaking his head.

**A/N: Er… so it wasn't exactly that great, but at least I tried! Believe it or not, I actually had this argument with two of my friend not too long ago. They didn't believe me that lightning and thunder were the same thing, just in different forms.**


	8. Chapter 8 Heart Chains

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

Death.

It's a funny word, isn't it? Five little letters. So much meaning.

The chains around my body shifted, and I winced slightly. I was in pain, but physical injury was nothing compared to what I felt inside.

He was gone. Po, the annoying panda, the ever-hungry funny guy, my best friend, was gone forever.

And now I was going to die, too. The others and I, we didn't stand a chance. We were dead meat and there was nothing I could do to protect them, to protect myself.

I was going to die.

"Po would want us to be strong. Hard-core. Right, Tigress?"

I didn't answer. I couldn't, I was too terrified to speak. I was going to die, and Po wasn't at my side.

It was so stupid! I'd always thought we'd die together, fighting side by side. A crazy, idiotic thought, yes, but…I couldn't imagine living without him, and I really couldn't even begin to comprehend dying without him by my side.

Maybe it was selfish, to wish that when I'd die, he'd die, too. That we'd meet our ends together. But right now, right now I wasn't Master Tigress. I was a little girl sitting in the Bao Gu Orphanage, wishing for someone to help me, to stand by me. Right now, I needed his strength, because I had none left.

A tear escaped one of my eyes and fell to the wood beneath me. It was all my fault. If only I'd been faster, stronger, a better warrior. I would have been able to fight those wolves off in time to knock him out of the way. If I could do it all over again and save him, I would.

Everything I'd ever learned was just so… pointless. The years of training, the broken bones, the blood, sweat and tears I poured out to make myself the best of the best! All of it was useless, because it hadn't been enough to save him.

Suddenly, my eyes caught something up on the rooftop. My breath quickened, my heart began to pound. No way. No possible way.

"Po?"


	9. Chapter 9 The Wrong Idea

To: Shouvin- You are correct, they are different things. 'Thunder' and 'Lightning' are the two names for the forms of energy that are given off from an electrical discharge between two clouds. My apologies for the misinformation. _However_, the point I was trying to get across was that the guys in the group were considering them two different entities from two different sources. (ex: the thunder came from the clouds bumping together, and the lightning because the gods were angry or whatever).

She panted slightly, her face a brilliant shade of red. "Po- Po, stop!" she hissed.

"Huh? Why?" he said, breathing heavily as well.

"Because we'll get caught!" she insisted.

"No we won't-"

"This is the wrong place," she said sharply, looking around the kitchen. "Anyone could walk in, and I don't feel like trying to explain something like this. What do we do if Shifu catches us?"

"We explain," he said, as if it were obvious.

She glared at him. "Don't you think that might be even the slightest bit difficult to do?"

"Why? I mean, come on, what's he going to do?"

She face-palmed. "Po-"

"Don't try to get out of it, Tigress. You made a bet, and now we see who wins." He grinned. "And remember, this is your last try."

She growled, and then snapped, "Fine. But if Master walks in, I'm blaming it all on you."

"I can take that." His grin grew wider. "On three. One."

"Two," she said.

"Three!" At the same time, they both sucked in a huge breath and held it.

A few seconds passed, before Tigress exhaled, gulping for air.

"WHOO HOO!" Po yelled. "I win! I can hold my breath longer than you can!"

She watched him run around of the kitchen, rolling her eyes. She dug a few coins out of her pocket. "Fine. You win. Here." She threw them at him. He caught them and continued to dance around. Sighing, she rolled her eyes and walked out. She had good plans for that money…


	10. Chapter 10 Brave Enough?

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

"You did _what_?"

"Shh!" Po said to the insect, who was nearly going into hysterics he was laughing so hard. "Not so loud; if she catches me, I'm dead!"

"You do realize she can scent you out," Mantis pointed out.

"Nope," Po said. "I knocked over the catnip jar in the kitchen to slow her down; she's probably still in there right now."

"You know, Tigress is a lot smarter than that," Mantis said. "I'd give you maybe a minute before she gets over the scent, and then she'll be coming at you full-throttle."

Po winced. "Really?"

"Really," the bug confirmed, as he heard the doors to the barracks slam open.

"WHERE IS HE?" Tigress roared.

Po whimpered, crouching down even closer to the floorboards. Now that he thought about it, maybe Mantis' room _wasn't_ the best place to hide.

There was a few more slamming sounds, as Tigress checked the rest of the rooms, and the annoyed responses from their occupants. With each slam that came closer, Po got more and more terrified, to the point where he was actually trembling with fear.

Suddenly, the door banged open, revealing an absolutely furious Tigress behind it. Po 'eep!'ed, and then covered his mouth.

The fuming feline strode into the room, glaring at the panda. Mantis hurriedly backed away into one of the corners, whispering, "Good luck, Po."

An angry snarl on her face, she stopped in front of him, grabbed the fur of his chest, and with one swift move yanked him to his feet, holding him there. Had Po been in his right mind, he might have done the flip Shifu had taught him to get out of that position, but he was too terrified to even remember how to speak straight.

"Any last words?" Tigress growled.

"S-s-sorry?" Po stuttered.

"Oh, you will be," she agreed, her tail lashing furiously. "You walk in on me training, almost get yourself killed, _kiss_ me, and then run out on me!"

"I-"

"How dare you! How dare you run away like that! How dare you not have the courage to stand there and take it!" He could count the number of very, _very _sharp, white fangs in her mouth. "You know what I do to cowards? I get rid of them. No mercy." She raised her fist to punch him through the paper wall.

"Wait!" Po yelled. "If I can prove to you that I'm not a coward in the next five seconds, will you let me live?"

Tigress glared at him, and then said, "Fine, you're o-" She didn't get the chance to finish, because Po had just smashed his lips into hers for the second time that day.

After a moment, he pulled away. "Brave enough?" he said nervously.

She stared at him, struggling to say something. When her mind finally kicked back into gear, she let go of him and took a step back. "I'll let you live another day," she said curtly, and then turned around and walked out.

Mantis stared at where she'd been in shock. "Dude. That was… amazing."

Po nodded mutely.

"I can't believe she didn't kill you for that!" He tapped his miniscule chin with his front legs. "You know what? I think she liked it!"

"What? Naw, come on!" Po said, shaking his head.

"Really! Why else would she have let you go?"

"You really think she liked it?" the panda said, surprised.

"Totally. Go after her!"

"Yeah! Thanks, Mantis!" Po ran off.

Mantis waited a few seconds before he heard a loud BANG! He hopped to the door. What he saw there was exactly what he'd expected: Po lying on the floor in a daze.

"What happened?" he asked the panda. "How hard did she hit you?"

Po shook his head. "She- she didn't hit me."

"What'd she do, then?"

"Well… uh… she kissed me… and then I fainted…" He trailed off, embarrassed.

"Aw, well. You'll get it right next time," Mantis said sympathetically. "At least now you know she likes you back!"

"Yeah… yeah, you're right, she does!" Po grinned, and then suddenly, his smile was replaced with a look of absolute horror.

"What?" Mantis asked

Po was even more terrified than he had been a few moments before. "What am I going to do about Master Shifu?"


	11. Chapter 11 Pact

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

"In here, in here!"

"WHA-!"

"Shh, keep your voice down!"

Po had absolutely no idea what was going on. He'd been rolled out of bed, picked up, and dragged to the pitch-dark bath house, all at around three-thirty in the morning.

"What the- Mantis, what is going on?"

"Oh, good, you got Po out of bed!" another voice- Monkey's- said.

"How did you manage that one?" Crane asked.

Suddenly, a candle flared, and the room was set aglow with flickering orange light. Monkey held up the candle, inspected it, and, after making sure it wouldn't go out, but it in the middle of the little circle everyone was sitting in.

"Okay, spill it! Why are we all in the bath house in the middle of the night?" Po demanded.

"Because we don't want the girls overhearing us," Mantis whispered.

"Overhearing what?"

They all glanced around at each other, before Monkey said, "Buddy, we need to have a little talk." The other two guys nodded.

"A talk about…?"

"About how there are waaaay more guys in the Palace than girls," Crane said.

Po stared at them for a moment, before it finally clicked. "So… what, we're calling dibs on who gets to date them?"

"Not exactly," said Mantis. "See, we can't exactly call 'dibs' on the girls."

"Not if we like life, anyway," Monkey agreed.

"So what we do is we make a pact: if they choose one of us, then the others can't get jealous and try to throw them off the mountain," Mantis explained. "You're the new guy, so we kind of have to redo it."

Crane lifted up one feather. "One: we've got to know who you've got your eyes on."

"Two," Monkey said, "We've got to put you in the pact."

"So…" Mantis said.

"So?"

The insect groaned in frustration. "So who do you like?"

"What- I don't-" The panda blushed furiously. "Okay, fine, it's Tigress."

The other three stared at him, and then started to laugh.

"What?" Po said defensively.

"Dude, you can have her!" Monkey said, who was nearly crying with tears. "We're all going for Viper! Jeez, do you have a death wish or something?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, first, you've got to go through Master Shifu," Crane said.

"And then there's Tigress herself," Mantis pointed out. "She'd probably tear you to shreds before you even got the chance to ask her out!"

"Yeah, well…" He went even redder. "Come on, just let me go back to bed!"

"Look, just say that you're in the pact, and we'll let you go," said Crane.

"Okay, okay, fine! I'm in! Can I go yet?"

"Yeah, sure, go ahead," Mantis said, still chortling.

He stood up and pushed open the door, grumbling. Then, suddenly, he stopped.

"Po? What's up?" Monkey asked, trying to look past the panda's wide girth.

That was when the worst thing possible happened. Two voices said in unison:

"Hello, boys. What's this about a pact?"

**A/N: I am now accepting story requests! (Please note that I will likely not be doing all the requests sent, especially nothing including the pairings of: Shi/Po, Ti/Shi, Tai/Ti, Vi/Po, Vi/Shi {EWWW!}, or Oogway/Shi {WHO THE LIVING HECK CAME UP WITH THAT PAIRING? THEY SHOULD BE SUED!} ). I will also not be accepting anything that has to do with Lemons, Limes, Oranges, Citrons, Grapefruits, Pummelos, Kumquats, or any other form of citrus. Kapiche?**


	12. Ch 12 The Wonders of the Jade Tortoise

Jade Tortoise

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. This was inspired by alicehatter239's 'Pretty Sure It's a Miracle,' chapter 4.

** A/N: Anyone ever notice how you can't see the inside of the Jade Tortoise unless you're looking directly down in at it? Hm…**

It was a normal day at the Jade Palace. The Five were training, Shifu was watching, and Po was messing around, as usual.

Well. What was to be expected? He _was_ Po Ping, after all. But, in Shifu's mind, that was no excuse for goofing off. And so he gave the ultimate punishment: sparring with Tigress.

"Aw, come on, Master Shifu, please don't make me do this!" Po pleaded. It wasn't that he didn't want to spar with Tigress, per say; he just didn't want to spar with her _temper_. The two had had a rather trivial fight over dinner the previous night, and, to put it bluntly, Tigress was still pissed. And a pissed-off Tigress was something nobody wanted to mess with.

"I will have no messing around, panda, and you will learn your lesson in any way I see fit."

Po grimaced. "Okay, okay. But can we not do it on the Swinging Clubs this time? Puh-_leeeeease_?"

"No whining or I'll make you spar with _me_," Shifu threatened. The panda gulped. "But I suppose you can try your luck with the Jade Tortoise…"

"Okay," Po said, trying not to hyperventilate in fear. He walked over to the Jade Tortoise and tried to get on top. "Mph- *Grunt* Ugh- Almost there-" He stopped and sighed. "Little help, Crane?"

The avian sighed and helped him onto the rim. Tigress blocked a Swinging Club and quickly flipped herself onto the other edge.

"Warriors ready," Shifu said.

"Please don't hurt me," Po whimpered to Tigress. She was smirking her evil sort of smirk that meant if you weren't dead by the time she was done with you, you were really going to wish you were.

"Hm. I'm the 'up-tight, heartless drill sergeant,' remember?" she said, quoting him from the night before.

He winced. "Did I really say that?"

"And… begin."

That was when Tigress attacked. She leapt across the length of the bowl and landed on the rim about a meter from him. She aimed a kick at his stomach, expecting that the panda would block it while simultaneously staying balanced.

She was mistaken.

There were two loud THUDs as Po let out a sharp yelp and, grabbing hold of the only solid thing he could reach- aka Tigress- dragged them both down into the Jade Tortoise.

The others sighed, knowing that the fight would likely continue within the bowl, and went back to their individual training, Shifu occasionally giving them corrections. After a few minutes, Viper said, "Wait… why did the noise stop?"

Everyone paused. She was right; nothing could be heard coming from within the Jade Tortoise. "Do you think they're okay?" Monkey asked, worried.

"I don't know; maybe they knocked each other out or something. Hey, Crane, check it out, would you?" Mantis asked.

Crane obliged and took to the air. He quickly flew over the bowl, and then back to the others, looking slightly flustered.

"Are they all right? What are they doing?" Viper asked.

Crane shook his head. "You don't want to know."

That was all it took. Shifu, now pale, quickly rushed at the bowl, using Oogway's staff to flip him on top of it. After a moment, he shouted, "_PANDA!_"

There was a slight bump, as if Po had jumped, startled. They heard the panda say, "M-Master Shifu! We weren't-"

"_How dare you kiss her!_"

"Uh-"

"And you, Tigress! You were supposed to spar with him, not start trying to swallow his mouth!"

"Master, I-"

"Get back to training, both of you! You will both be missing dinner tonight! And panda, so help me, if I find you within an inch of my daughter's lips again, I will personally make sure that the next thing you eat will be your own stomach!"

"Yes, Master Shifu," they heard both warriors mutter, before Shifu jumped back off the rim. He walked past them in a huff.

"Master Shifu?" Monkey bravely questioned.

"I'm going to meditate!" the red panda said irritatedly, walking for the doors of the training hall. He'd just yanked it open when he heard Viper whisper, "He does realize they're just going to go back to making out once he's left?"

Shifu let out a noise that sounded like a strangled moan, pulled the door open, and stalked out.

**A/N: OKAY! I'm good with the requests now! Thank you! This was actually kind of random inspiration, but hey, what can I say? The inside of that bowl **_**is**_** kind of secluded… ; )**


	13. Chapter 13 Catnip

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda

"Kya!" Tigress shouted, before whirling around and shattering another one of the Swinging Clubs. "Heis!"  
>She glanced over at the others, who were all training. All but one.<p>

Po watched her with an awed expression on his face. Tigress found herself staring back, though she didn't know why. They stayed like this for a second, before she realized that she was going to get hurt if she didn't go back to training.

Too late. A club was already swinging at her. As she raised her paw to block, she realized that the end swinging towards her was the _spiked_ side. This revelation barely had time to hit her before there was a loud CRUNCH! in her hand, and pain the likes of that which she hadn't felt for nearly ten years electrocuted her nervous system.

She let out a sharp cry of pain, barely managing to stay on her feet. Clutching the hand to her stomach, she managed to stumbled off of the arena and onto the normal flooring.

"Master Tigress! What happened?" Po said, sounding terrified.

"My- paw-" she said through gritted teeth.

"I'm getting the healer, Tigress!" Crane shouted, flying for the door.

She clenched her mouth so tightly it ached, breathing in and out in hisses. After what seemed like an eternity, she blearily saw another figure in front of her.

"Master Tigress, breath this in," the healer said, pushing something beneath her nose. She did as she was ordered.

The pain began to subside, as did every other feeling in her body. She felt herself grow dizzy and- and-

She collapsed to the floor, and everything went black…

**KFP**

"Will she be all right?" Shifu asked worriedly, looking at the unconscious tiger on the bed mat. They were all in Viper's room, as it was the closest to the door.

The healer, an elderly goat, nodded. "Master Tigress is one of the fastest healers I've ever seen. The bone in her hands is tough and fused together; it only cracked into two, instead of shattering. All that ironwood training, no doubt." She wrapped the tiger master's paw gently with linen. "Keep her off it for a week, and she'll be good."

"What was that stuff you gave her?" Po asked. "She fell over right away."

"Catnip," Monkey answered. "Whenever she has an injury this serious, we usually knock her out with catnip. Otherwise, once she can think through the pain, she'll insist she's fine and try to train again."

"She's always a little funny when she wakes up, though," Mantis said. "Remember last time? She kept giggling and asking where the moon went during the day."

"And then tried to find my hands," Viper agreed.

"I gave her more this time," the healer said, "so she'll probably be ditzy for longer now. It should wear off in a few hours, though."

"Good," Shifu said. "It's a bit strange, however. She hasn't lost her focus like that in a long time."

Suddenly, Tigress' eyes fluttered open. She stared up at them all for a moment, and then said with a sweet smile, "Baba? Why are you so tall? Did I shrink?"

Shifu raised an eyebrow, and then looked over at the healer. "Exactly how much did you give her again?"

Tigress giggled, and then looked over at the panda beside her. "Po. Panda Po. Puffy plushy panda Po!"

"Uh… okay…" Po said slowly.

"Can I see your tail?" Tigress asked sweetly.

He stared at her. "What?"

"Your tail. Your little poofy round tail." She giggled again. "It looks like a bunny tail!"

Po scowled and tried to cover his butt. "It does not!"

"Tails. I got a long tail, see? It's striped!" She showed him her tail. "Monkey's got a long one, too! Only his is thinner. And Crane's is made of feathers." She frowned as she turned to Mantis. "You don't have a tail. Are you sad?"

The bug backed away, a little scared. "Not really."

She grinned. "Oh, good! And then Po's got a bunny tail, and Viper _is_ her tail! And Shifu's tail is all big and fluffy!"

Shifu glared at her as everyone else broke out laughing. "If I so much as hear the word 'tail' again, I will make you run the obstacle course fifteen times in a row."

"Okay!" She sat up. "Can we go play? I wanna play. How about swimming? Can we swim on the moon? Is there water on the moon?" She frowned. "Is there water in my head?" She shook her head just to be sure, and then grinned again. "Nope! No water!"

Suddenly, she stood up again. "I know! Noodles! Let's all get some noodles!" And before anyone could stop her, she raced out the door.

**KFP**

"Tigress- wait- up-" Po gasped, panting heavily.

They'd barely managed to keep up with the hyper tiger, following her all the way down the stairs and through the village.

"There!" Crane said from above, pointing with his beak. "She's in your dad's shop, Po." The bird winced. "And she just broke a whole tray of bowls."

"Thanks, Crane!" The other three quickly ran through the streets to the noodle shop, the avian leading the way. Even before they got there, they could tell she was there by the amount of noise (mostly crashes) that could be heard in the streets.

"Oh, Po, thank goodness you're here!" Mr. Ping said, running out of the restaurant. "Something is terribly wrong, oh, terribly wrong, she's scaring away all the customers…"

"We're on it, Dad," Po assured him. "Just make sure that you don't get hit or anything."

"I will, don't you worry- oh dear!" he cried, running back in. "Master Tigress, please, put that radish down!"

"Okay guys, let's go!" Po shouted, in his usual fashion. The others followed (perhaps less enthusiastically) into the shop.

There, the oddest sight met their eyes. Many of the tables were broken, which wasn't much of a shock, but the real surprise was Tigress herself. She was singing something at the top of her voice and throwing random ingredients into a pot of boiling water. When she saw Po, she waved excitedly. "Po! Po!"

"She's calling for you, man," Monkey said nervously. "Why don't you go see what's up?"

"What? Why don't we all just go over there and- wait a minute. You guys aren't scared of Tigress, are you?"

The four glanced at each other guiltily.

"Aw, come on! You guys are like the greatest fighters in China, and you're afraid of a tiger hyped up on catnip?"

"Well, Po…" Viper said hesitantly. "When Tigress gets like this, she really doesn't know her own strength. She kind of gets this mindset where she acts like a little girl, and she forgets how powerful she is."

"So yeah, we're terrified of her," Mantis finished.

"Go on, Po," Monkey encouraged. "She wants you over there, not us. Maybe you can get her back to normal!"

"Oh yeah, that's totally going to happen!" Po said. "Guys, come on, don't make me- WHOA!" The 'whoa' was mainly due to the fact that Crane had kicked him forward towards the hyper feline.

"Yay!" Tigress cheered, as Po walked nervously into the kitchen. "Come here, come here!" She dragged him towards the pot and pointed at it. "See? I'm cooking!"

Po looked at the substance in the pot, which was roughly the consistency of soggy mud and probably tasted just as terrible. "Uh… yeah. Soup."

"Try it!" She grabbed a ladle off the counter nearby and scooped up some of the soup before forcing it into the panda's mouth. Thankfully, it was cold (she'd forgotten to put the pot onto the stove), but it tasted positively rancid. Po nearly choked.

Tigress looked at him hopefully. "So do you like it?"

"Mm. Mm-hm," he lied through the mouthful of soup (which he still hadn't swallowed).

"Oh, good!" She turned around and continued 'cooking,' during which Po spat the soup out and wiped his tongue with his paws, gagging.

"Tigress," he said, once he was able to talk. "Maybe, um, we should go back to the Palace now?"

She looked at him, all wide-eyed innocence. "Why?"

"Uh, because- because-" He searched for a reason. "Because Master Shifu will get worried!"

"Baba? Baba won't get worried at all! I could be gone for three whole weeks and he wouldn't care!" She said it cheerfully, but her eyes became very sad. "He probably wouldn't miss me even one tiny bit."

Po stared at her. "Uh, yeah, he would. Don't you remember the day I ditched training? He almost had an-"

"Training, training, training!" she said in a sing-song voice. "That's all he ever makes me do! Well, I don't want to train anymore! I want to have some fun! And I want to cook!" She turned back to the soup and grabbed a jar of black powder off the counter.

"Tigress, don't use that!"

"Why?" she said, looking at him over her shoulder. Unfortunately, this caused her to trip over a fallen pot on the ground. She caught herself on the counter, but the powder fell into the fire.

BOOOOOM!  
>The explosion that rang through the small kitchen nearly blasted out the two's eardrums as they were thrown back.<p>

When the dust cleared, Po (his face blacked by soot) coughed out, "Tigress, that was firework powder! The people at Gongmen City gave me some as a gift." He glanced around, worried that she hadn't said anything. "Tigress?"

He heard a slight whimpering, and quickly crawled over towards it. Behind an overturned table, which was stained black in the center (it hadn't been a lot of powder, just enough to knock the two of them of their feet). When he moved it aside, he found none other than Tigress.

The feline master gazed at him with tear-filled eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry."

"No- it's- Tigress, it's fine, it's just a stove."

"I'm sorry," she said again. "I didn't try to blow it up!"

"I know, okay? It's alright, I'm not mad or anything."

She whimpered again and buried her head in her knees. Po, unsure of what else to do, pulled her into an awkward hug.

After she'd calmed down a bit, he said, "So why were you trying to cook, huh?"

She mumbled something he couldn't hear. "What?"

"I wanted to impress you," she said, raising her head slightly

"Impress me? Tigress, why'd you want to do that?"  
>"Because I like you. I really, really like you, and I just want you to like me back, but I know you never will, and now- hic- and now, I've ruined everything." She buried her head in her knees again, crying softly.<p>

"Tigress- Tigress, listen-" He gave up, frustrated and knowing that she wouldn't listen to anything in this state. After a moment's consideration, he picked her up bridal-style and carried her upstairs to his bed, where he laid her down and told her, "Go to sleep, okay?"

She sniffled and nodded, curling up into a little ball. He pulled the patched and tattered covers over her and left.

"What happened?" Monkey said, as he came out of the kitchen again. It looked like something exploded in there, and then we saw you carrying Tigress up the stairs."

"She isn't hurt, is she?" Viper said, worriedly.

"No, she's okay. But we should probably let her sleep off the rest of the stuff."

**A few hours later (After dark).**

Tigress awoke with a pounding headache and a feeling like fire in her hand. "Ugh…" she moaned, sitting up and looking around. She saw the well-worn furniture and poster-plastered and drawn-on walls, one of which was stuck with dull shuriken. "Where am I?" she wondered aloud.

"Hey, you're awake."

She turned, surprised, and saw Po standing in the doorway. "What… happened?" she said uncertainly. "Where are we?"

"This is my room. Well, my room at the noodle shop, anyway."

"Really?" She looked around again, taking it all in. It wasn't a richly decorated dwelling; as a matter of fact, it was rather sparse. She saw the row of action figures sitting on the windowsill, which looked over into the next-door neighbor's house. "I see… How did I get here?"

Po shifted uncomfortably. "You don't remember anything?"

"No, I-" she blinked rapidly as a few hazy memories drifted into her memory. "Perhaps a bit." She winced. "I'll have to pay Mr. Ping for the tables and the stove…"

"Yeah, that'd be good. I don't think he'll be too mad, though, once we explain that you were hyped up on catnip and all."

"Yes, though I think an apology is in order." She looked at him for a moment. "You're acting strange."

"Strange? What? No I'm not. I'm not strange at all!"

"Po."

He winced. "Okay, maybe I'm a little spacy. But you almost blew me up!"

She studied him for a moment, and then said, "But that wasn't all I did, was it?"

Another wince. "Um… no."

"Did I say something?"

"No! I mean, well, kind of. Yeah."

"What did I say?"

No answer.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Po. What. Did. I. Say?"

"Uh… well, you kind of told me that… you 'really, really like me,'" he said, his voice trailing off.

Tigress closed her eyes for a moment. "That's what I was afraid of." There was a long pause, before she opened them again and said, "I will not allow my affections to get in the way of our training. Forget that I ever said that." She stood up and walked past him towards the door.

"Tigress!" He tried to grab her shoulder, but she spun around and knocked his hand away.

"Leave me be, Po!" she snarled. Then, her voice went slightly softer. "Don't make this more difficult than it is."

"I can't just forget it!" he protested.

"And why not?" she said, her voice rising again.

"Because I like you too!" he said, the words ringing in the air.

She stared at him as if he'd grown a second head. "What?"

"I've always liked you! You were, like, my hero, even before I knew you. It was my dream to just meet you." He shuffled his feet. "But it was always just a stupid dream. I never thought I'd actually ever get the chance to, y'know, tell you how I feel."

She continued to stare. After a few moments, she finally managed, "You want… me?"

"Uh… yeah. Kind of," he said, embarrassed.

"But you're the Dragon Warrior," she pointed out. "You could have any woman you choose. Why me?"

"Why _not_ you? You're beautiful, smart, brave, and totally out of my league. And also, I've had a crush on you since I was, like, twelve." He blushed.

She blinked. "I..."

"Tigress, I really, really, _reall_y, like you, and all I'm asking is that you just give me a chance."

That was when it hit her. He was asking her out. Po, the Dragon Warrior, was asking her out.

"I'll give you a chance, if you give me one," Tigress answered finally.

Po grinned. "Great! So, I dunno, you wanna stay here for dinner then? Everyone else is already back at the Palace, and dad's making noodles over a fire, so…"

She nodded and smiled slightly. "I'd like that."

He helped her off the bed (she was a little unsteady on her feet) and slowly, they began to walk downstairs together, both blushing slightly as the panda took her paw into his and she smiled a real, genuine smile. Both were happier than they'd ever been, and they had the peculiar feeling that many more happy times were to come.

_~El Fín.~_

**A/N: Yes, this is sappy, stupid, poorly written, **_**EXTREMELY**_** OOC, and probably annoying. But hey, a oneshot is better than a no-shot, right? *awkward silence* Come on, somebody say right!**


	14. Chapter 14 Chrysanthemums

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

**A/N: This is a request from mechkiller. Hope you like it!**

"Congratulations."

The bird blinked and looked around, holding onto his broom. "Mei Ling?" he asked, surprised. "Where are you? I can't see you."

There was the sound of something moving through the air, and then a slight thud as a figure landed in front of him. "Congratulations on making it into the school," Mei Ling said again.

"Oh, uh, thanks," Crane answered softly, dipping his head and trying not to blush. He always acted like a dork around Mei Ling. She was just so… nice. And pretty. And talented. And she liked chrysanthemums.

Did he mention she was pretty?

Anyway, he knew he liked her. Pretty much every guy in the school did (one heard a lot as a janitor, since most people considered you part of the flooring), so he knew that he didn't have a chance. But still, a bird can dream…

"So are you excited?"

"What?" he asked, realizing that he'd been zoning out.

"Are you excited to start training tomorrow?" she repeated. "You'll be in the beginner's class, of course, but you'll be moving up in no time."

"Really?" he said.

"Sure. Knowing you, you could probably be even better than me!" She grinned at him.

"Me? Better than you? No, no, no. You're the best in the Academy. I haven't even started yet."

"I don't know," she said. "I bet that if you trained hard enough, you could even be asked to go to the Jade Palace!"

His beak dropped open in shock. "Mei Ling… were you in the sun too long today?"

"I'm dead serious. You have talent, Crane. I know that if you gave it everything you've got, you'd definitely be one of the best warriors in China." She touched his wing affectionately and then started to walk away.

"Wait!" Crane called suddenly.

She looked back. "Yes?"

"You- you really think I could do it? Be asked to go to the Jade Palace, I mean."

She nodded. "I believe in you." She gave him a soft smile, and then turned around again and walked away.

"Jade Palace…" Crane said to himself. "Well… Maybe, if Mei Ling thinks I can… I suppose if I fail, then I haven't really lost anything…" And with that, he'd set his mind to it: he was going to become one of the best warriors in the Academy, and maybe, if he could, in China…

**Twenty Years Later-**

**(Can we pretend it's only six? Thank you.)**

**SIX Years later…**

"Hey, Crane? Can I ask you something?"

The bird looked over his shoulder at the panda in surprise. "Sure. What's up?"

Po waited until the others had gone ahead of him to their own rooms, and then said, "Look… On my first night here, I kind of… tripped into your room by mistake, remember?"

Crane shifted his feathers a little. "How could I forget?"

"Well, you could have been a total jerk to me about it, and I kind of would have deserved it, too."

"That's not-"

"Yeah, it is, and I know it, too. But even though I must've been really annoying you all, you tried to be all polite and stuff. I mean, I know you joked about it with the others when you thought I was out of earshot-" (at this, Crane winced slightly) "-but at least to my face, you were nice. Why?"  
>Crane thought about it for a moment, and then said, "Well… When I was first starting out, a lot of people made fun of me because they thought I couldn't do it. But someone decided to believe in me."<p>

"Mei Ling?"

"Uh-huh. So I figured that if she could put up with me, the least I could do was be nice to you."

The panda nodded, and then said, "Well… thanks, man."

"No problem." He gave the panda a smile, and then walked into his own room.

He closed the door behind him, and then gently pulled aside the tear in the paper wall that he'd discovered a while ago. It was about half a meter long and a decameter wide, and it gave him a good view of the sky and even, on clear nights, the Sacred Peach Tree.

Tonight, though, it wasn't the perfume of peach blossoms that hung air. Tonight, as if willed by the gods, it was the scent of chrysanthemums, blowing gently on the wind. He sighed to himself.

_Mei Ling…_


	15. Chapter 15 Eye of the Tiger

**A/N: Well, I know you guys don't like songfics much, but I just couldn't let this one go. IT'S BEEN DRIVING ME INSANE! And to be perfectly honest, what better song for Tigress than "Eye of the Tiger?"**

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda or Eye of the Tiger. I got the lyrics from http :/www. stlyrics. com/lyrics/rockyiii/eyeofthetiger. htm. Also, I have changed many of the 'him's to 'her's and 'man's to 'woman's. Understood?

Risin' up, back on the street

Did my time, took my chances

She surveyed the road in front of her, filled with unconscious bandits. She glanced at her master, who gave her nothing, no nod of praise or a 'well done.'

The twelve-year-old's heart plummeted. Couldn't he at least give her _some_ sort of approval? Then again, she knew that it was better here than at the jail-like Bao Gu.

She let out the tiniest of sighs, so small that even her master couldn't hear it, and went to get the binding ropes, stubbornly pushing her tears down and vowing to herself that one day, he _would_ be proud of her.

Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet

Just a woman and her will to survive

The tiger master looked at the panda in front of her, smiling proudly. He grinned back, and then went slightly red, apparently remembering their hug a few moments previous.

"Good work, Po," she said. "You fought well."

"Yeah, well… Shen was probably a little disoriented from the cannon blast and everything-"

"Don't try to be humble," she interrupted. "You did very well. Better than I could have."

"Aw, that's not-"

"Po. Be proud of yourself. You're the Dragon Warrior, and you deserve that title." She smiled, knowing it was true.

So many times, it happens too fast

You trade your passion for glory

She aimed a high round-house kick at his head, which he ducked, before she promptly flipped him onto his back. She dropped to a knee and raised her fist high.

He closed his eyes and waited for the blow to come…

It never did.

He opened his eyes in surprise, only to find that she had already stood up and was offering him a paw up.

He took it, blinking and vowing to find out what had happened.

Later, he asked "So… why didn't you knock me out?"

She glanced over her shoulder at him. "I love the art Kung Fu, not taking down an opponent. There was a time when I thought that they were the same thing… And then a panda dropped from the sky in front of me." She smiled and said, "Thank you."

Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past

You must fight just to keep them alive

As they were meditating under the Sacred Peach Tree one night, Po asked, "Do you ever wish you would have been the Dragon Warrior?"

She opened her eyes and looked at him. "I never wanted to be the Dragon Warrior."

"What do you mean?"

"Well… I suppose you could say I viewed the Dragon Scroll as a stepping stone to something else, and that wasn't at all how I should have looked at it."

He didn't ask what the something else was. He already knew.

[Chorus:]

It's the eye of the tiger, it's

the thrill of the fight

Rising up to the challenge of our rival

She let out a loud "KYAH!" and back-fisted the boar in the nose. She threw him over her back, and then whirled around, scissor-kicking the next opponent into a wall.

And the last known survivor

stalks his prey in the night

And he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger

She desperately looked around for the panda. Where was he? Where was-

There! She spotted him on the cliff below her, battling the head wolf. As she watched, he threw him over the cliff edge, effectively ending the fight.

Face to face, out in the heat

Hangin' tough, stayin' hungry

Po panted slightly. "How- much- longer- do we- have to be- out here?"

She glanced at him. The panda looked like he was going to pass out right there in the training courtyard. "We've only been out here for fifteen minutes."

"But it's ninety-two degrees out!"

They stack the odds, still we take to the street

The odds weren't good: judging from the number of rhinos, it was ten of them to one of her. A timid person would have stayed away, but then again, Master Tigress was no timid person.

For the kill with the skill to survive

She knew that, Dragon Warrior aside, she was the best of the best, the second greatest warrior in all of China. She could take down any opponent, defeat any rival, destroy anyone who dared to challenge her!

Whereas before, this might have meant a great deal to her, right now, it meant more to be holding her adopted little girl in her arms, trying to feed the little lion girl her baba's famous noodles.

"Po, can I have some help here?"

"No way. It's _your_ turn to feed her."

She growled. "I will seriously hurt you in training today if you don't help me feed Ching Lan!"

He considered this, and then shook his head. "I'll take my chances with sparring you than feeding her any day."

[Chorus]

Risin' up, straight to the top

Had the guts, got the glory

She glanced at the peach-wood staff and let out a melancholy sigh. She'd been doing that a lot, ever since she and Po had become to the two grandmasters of Kung Fu.

She felt two furry arms wrap around her from behind. "I know. I miss him, too," Po said softly.

Went the distance, now I'm not gonna stop

Just a woman and her will to survive

She looked over the cliff edge and, seeing the Valley at peace, let herself go at ease. She knew that she could survive just about anything, though losing Po or Ching Lan would probably do her in.

She thought for a moment about everything that had happened since that day so long ago when Master Shifu had brought her to the Jade Palace. She'd gained strength, friends, courage, a family… all in all, Tigress knew that, without a doubt, she was glad it had gone exactly the way it had.

[Chorus]

The eye of the tiger

[Repeats to fade out]

This was her life, her destiny, her legacy. And in her opinion, it was only just beginning.

_~El Fín~_


	16. Chapter 16 Truth or Dare

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. Also, I'm going by my usual 'change the twenty years to six' policy, because if I didn't, that would make Crane and Mei Ling roughly forty (they both looked about twenty in KFP: Secrets of the Fur. 5), and considering that people died at that age back then…

**A/N: This a request from Shouvin. Everyone, check out his story, Chronos! Trust me, this guy knows how to write!**

She'd _known_ it would be Hell.

It always was whenever Mei Ling visited. Not that she didn't like the mountain cat- they were actually quite good friends- but add Mei Ling and Viper, and you had, well…

This.

"So, Tigress, truth or dare?"

The tiger master rolled her eyes. "Pass."

"You can't pass!" Viper protested. "That's not how it works!"

Tigress growled. Mei Ling and Viper had forced her to join in a 'girl's night,' which had roughly involved an unwanted makeover, a discussion on guys (which Tigress had forcefully refused to participate in), and now a nice game of truth or dare.

Let's just say that Tigress had restrained herself from faking a heart attack several times already. Being buried alive had to be better than this.

"Well, I don't care how it works. _I pass_."

"No, you don't," Mei Ling said, as if that ended it. "Now, choose."

"No."

"Tigress," Viper threatened, "If you don't play, I will tell the entire Valley about Mr. Growls."

There was a moment of tense silence. "You wouldn't dare," Tigress hissed.

"Oh, wouldn't I?" Viper looked her dead in the eyes, and Tigress saw that she wasn't joking.

"Alright! I'll play! Happy?" she snapped.

Viper grinned. "You get to ask Tigress first, Mei Ling."

"Good. Now," the mountain cat asked, "Truth or Dare?"

"Truth," Tigress said, resigned to her fate. She knew that answering 'dare' could be fatal- at least, to her pride.

Mei Ling grinned. "Who's Mr. Growls?"

Scratch that pride bit.

Tigress' ears flattened to the base of her skull. "Dare."

"Tigress…" Viper warned.

"Fine! Mr. Growls is… this stuffed animal I used to have when I was a cub." She went a furious shade of red under orange fur.

Mei Ling shrugged. "That's not too bad. I used to have one, too."

"Well… Tigress didn't just _used_ to have one…" Viper said in sing-song voice.

"You still have it?" the mountain cat said, surprised.

Tigress glared at her. "You are _so_ dead tomorrow." She turned to Mei Ling. "It's somewhere in the bottom of my clothing chest, and I don't know exactly where, so don't get any ideas!"

"Don't worry about it," Mei Ling assured her. "What happens in this room stays in this room."

"My turn," Tigress snapped. "Viper…" she thought for a moment, casting around for a good question. "If you had to date either Crane, Mantis, Po or Monkey for a whole year, which one would you choose?"

"Mantis," Viper answered, without any hesitation.

Both felines stared at her. "What?" they said in a deadpan unison.

Viper would have shrugged, if she'd had arms. "He's funny."

Tigress closed her eyes. "Trust you to fall for the most perverted insect in China."

"He's not perverted!" When they gave her doubtful looks, she said, "Well… maybe a little… but like I said, he's funny!"

"Well, if you get Mantis, then I definitely call Crane," Mei Ling said. This didn't come as much of a surprise to either of the other two females, but suddenly the mountain cat and the snake were staring at Tigress expectantly.

"What?" she said, somewhat defensively.

"Well, what about you?" Mei Ling asked. "If you had to choose one of the four, which one?"

"I don't-"

"Oh, don't bother answering," Viper said, flicking her tail. "We all know you've got it bad for Po."

"What the- _I do not!_" she hissed.

"Come on, Tigress! You remember Gongmen City? You hugged him. _Hugged him._ I didn't even think you knew what hugging was!"

Tigress scowled, unwilling to admit that that was the first time she'd ever hugged anyone, or later from Po, been hugged. "That doesn't mean-"

"Tigress, just admit it! You smile around him. You laugh at his jokes. _You eat his freakin' noodles_. I've been trying to get you to eat something other than steamed tofu for over ten years, and the panda spends a week here, and you start eating noodles!" She smiled at the tiger master. "Lighten up, it's not like we're going to tell him!"  
>Tigress growled, then said, "Fine. But if he finds out-"<p>

"Um, guys?"

They all froze. Again, the voice came from behind the paper door.

"You just might want to know," Po said, sounding nervous, "These paper walls aren't very good at keeping out sound."

Tigress was the first to recover. Standing up and walking to the door, she pulled it open, only to find Po, Mantis, Crane, and Monkey standing just behind it. "How much did you hear?" she asked, her tone rather cold.

Po gulped. "Uh, well… everything."

"I see." Tigress flicked her eyes to Mantis and Monkey. "If I hear so much as one joke about Mr. Growls, it won't be only thing that'll be cracked around here. Understood?"

Both boys nodded very, very fast.

She turned back to the panda. "Po. May I talk to you outside?"

He nodded. Everyone watched them walk out the barrack door, before Mantis said, "So Viper… you free Friday night?"

"When am I _not_ free Friday night?" the snake teased.

"Cool." He grinned. "C'mon, Monkey; I think _Mei-Mei_ and Crane want some time _alone_."

The primate grinned and followed. Viper went back in the room, leaving Mei Ling and Crane alone in the hallway.

"Well…" Crane said awkwardly. "I- I guess I should probably-"  
>"You do know that Viper is listening to all of this, right?" Mei Ling interrupted.<p>

"Good point… well, to make it short… do you want to get some noodles at Mr. Ping's on Saturday?"

"I'd love to." She smiled at him, and he, going slightly red, smiled back.

There was a pause, before Mei Ling cocked her head. "Viper… I don't hear any talking outside. Do you?"

"No," the snake answered, from behind the paper. She quickly pushed the door open and slithered out into the hall. "What do you think's up?"

It took them all of about two seconds to come to the same conclusion. Wide-eyed, they raced out the door.

They looked around, trying to find the panda and the tiger. "Where are they?" Viper asked.

Suddenly, Crane pointed with one feather towards the Sacred Peach Tree. Two small figures were visible underneath the tree, talking.

Viper huffed. "Trust them to go the one place where I actually feel guilty about eavesdropping on someone." She glanced at Mei Ling, and then said, "Y'know… I think another round of Truth or Dare might be good when they get back…"

"I don't want to know," Crane said, and walked back inside.

**Hm… not a strong ending, but oh well…**


	17. Chapter 17 Prodigy

Prodigy

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

**A/N: Haha! Look what I managed to write before I had to surrender my computer to the powers that be! (aka the computer guys).**

"Y'know, you really shouldn't be up this late."

Tigress glanced over her shoulder, surprised. "Po. What are you doing here?" She quickly leapt off her portion of the obstacle course (the Seven Swinging Clubs of Instant Oblivion) and landed in front of him on the side. "It's late; you should go back to bed."

"Well yeah. That's why I'm here; shouldn't _you_ be in bed?"

"I'm nocturnal."

He blinked. "Nocdoodle?"

"Nocturnal. It means I can stay awake at night."

"Maybe, but you're still awake all day," he pointed out. "You've got to sleep _sometime_."

She disregarded this and turned back around, preparing to go back to training. "Go back to bed, Po; we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

He, of course, didn't leave. Instead, he held out an almond cookie. "Want one?"

Tigress looked over her shoulder. "No, thanks."

"Aw, come on, it's one cookie!"

"I'm _busy_," she answered, putting emphasis on the busy.

"It's the middle of the night. You're not _supposed_ to be 'busy.'"

She scowled starting to get annoyed. "Go away, Po."

"No."

_"Go away."_

"Uh-uh. Eat the cookie."

"GO AWAY!"

"I'm not going until you take the cookie!"

She glared at him. "Fine!" She grabbed the cookie. "Happy?"

"Not really."

She threw her hands up in frustration. "What more do you want?"

Po shrugged. "I just wanna know why you're here."

"I told you, I'm training."

"Why? I mean, you're just going to get yourself sick if you don't get any sleep, and besides, you don't need to train any more than you already do."

"That's where our conflict is, then," Tigress answered, growling. "_I_ think I need to, and _you_ need to leave."

He grinned. "Oh, come _on_, Tigress. You're freakin' amazing! Trust me, you don't need extra training hours. If anyone does, it's the panda right here." He pointed at himself.

"No, _I'm _the one that got caught by Lord Shen. I won't let that happen again; it's simply unacceptable." She turned away again.

"Y'know, Master's already really proud of you. You don't have to be any better."

She stopped, froze. Slowly, she turned around. "What did you say?" she said, in a low, dangerous voice.

"I said, Master Shifu's proud of you, Tigress. He always has been. It doesn't matter how good you are."

A moment passed, before suddenly, Tigress charged him, slamming him into the wall with her paws.

"How dare you!" she hissed. "How dare you say that! How dare you pretend to know him!"

Po's eyes were wide as saucers. "Tigress-"

"How dare you pretend to sympathize! You have no idea, _no idea_ what it's like!" Suddenly, she laughed, and let him go. "What am I saying? Of course you wouldn't understand." She turned back around. "Please excuse my outburst."

"Want to bet?" he said quietly, from behind. "Want to bet that I don't understand?"

"Go back to bed, Po," she said, her voice calm, natural even.

"You think I don't get it? How they want you to be just like them? How they've already got your whole future planned out in their heads before you can even walk?" He took a few steps towards her. "C'mon, Tigress, I think we both know that my dad never wanted me to be a Kung Fu Master. Yeah, maybe Master Shifu was tougher on you than my dad was on me. But face it, we were both in the same boat."

She laughed again, and this time, it sounded like more like a choked sob than a chuckle. "'Were?' You talk like things have changed."

"They have!" he insisted. "Don't you see it? Master Shifu's proud of you! He's so proud, sometimes he looks like he's just going to explode! You know that spar we had today? Where you totally kicked my butt? Man, you should've _seen_ the guy! He was beaming so hard, you could have used him like a little torch!"

Tigress didn't say anything for a few moments, and then shook her head. "No. I'm not a fool. Things haven't changed so quickly."

"Maybe they never did. Maybe now, he's just showing it."

She shook her head again. "He was never proud. Never of me. I was just a- a replacement for his precious Tai Lung." Her voice was harsh and bitter, like winter wind.

"Tigress… do you really think that?" Po asked softly.

She turned abruptly, her eyes blazing with fire. "How could I not?" she demanded. "He never cared. Never. Not once did he ever tell me he was proud of me, that he- that he loved me." She growled. "I remember hearing that even the top musical children in the Musician's Village would practice only three hours a day*, and thinking, 'wouldn't it be nice, to only train three hours a day?' I remember punching Ironwood trees until my knuckles bled and my bones shattered. I remember shivering in the rain during a day of training in the courtyard… I gave it everything I had, and it was never good enough." She shook her head. "He didn't want 'good enough.' He wanted a prodigy… And I may have talent, Po, but I was _never_ a prodigy. That was Tai Lung… and you."

"What the- what are you talking about?"

"You have a natural talent for Kung Fu. You were able to learn techniques in a month that I hadn't been able to master in over twenty years. You have a _gift_ for it… and that's something I never had." Tigress didn't look him in the eyes as she said this; instead, she looked over his head. "You have no idea how many times a day I wish that Kung Fu came naturally to me… but it doesn't, and it never will. I'm never going to be _good enough_."

There was a long, long silence. It must have been at least a minute or two. Finally, Po said quietly, "Y'know, Tigress… maybe you're not a prodigy or whatever, but you're definitely good enough. Master Shifu knows it, and so do I. You're totally awesome, just the way you are."

She didn't know what it was that convinced her in that moment. Maybe it was his words, or perhaps the way his eyes were so honest, so truthful. But no matter what it was, suddenly, she felt as if the entire world had been lifted off her shoulders. "Thank you, Po," Tigress said softly. "That- that means a lot. More than you know."

The panda grinned at her. "So how about you come back with me, huh? You need some sleep."

She nodded. "You're right… and you know what? I think I'll take tomorrow off. It's been twenty years, after all; the gods know I deserve it."

"You think Master Shifu might let me off, too?" he asked hopefully.

She smirked. "Not a chance."

"_Aw_," he groaned. "C'mon, _please_ try to convince him to let us all get the day off!"

She rolled her eyes. "Maybe. You know how strict he is. But I'll see what I can do."

He grinned. "Thanks, Tigress!"

"You're welcome. Now, let's go get some rest."

The two friends left the training hall together, side by side. Neither of them spotted the red panda standing on the other side of it, hidden in the shadows.

"I think I _will_ give them the day off tomorrow," Shifu said to himself. "And I should definitely have a talk with Tigress; it seems we have some catching up to do… and I have some amends to make." And without another word, he, too, left the training hall in search of his own bed.

_~El Fin~_

** *Many Chinese children will practice their instruments or study for tests for hours every day. According to Amy Chua, author of **_**Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother**_**, an excerpt of said book in The Saturday Essay, Published Jan. 8****th****, 2011, accessed Oct. 18****th****, 2011, "**For a Chinese mother, the first hour is the easy part. It's hours two and three that get tough." ( http :/online. wsj. com/article/SB1000 1424052 7487 04111504 57605 97 135286 98754. html )


	18. Chapter 18 Warmth

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

The water was hot and soothing.

It wasn't hot enough, though.

Not hot enough to get rid of the chill.

I pushed myself under the bathwater, my fur rippling slightly in the waves. Who would have thought Gongmen City would have a bathhouse open this late at night?

And so empty, too. Even under the water, I could tell that no one was there. I was the only one.

It was all right. I liked it better empty, anyway. I'm more of a loner, for anyone that hasn't noticed.

I snorted to myself and resurfaced. "Well. Not such a loner anymore, am I?" I said to- quite literally- no one in particular. "After all, it was my _best friend_ that died."

It had only been twenty-four hours, probably less, since I'd lost my best friend to a cannon.

That's why I wanted the water to be hot. To get rid of the chill the nightmares brought.

They shouldn't have started this early, really. Sometimes, it takes days, months, even years for the nightmares to start after a tragedy.

I would know.

But then again, losing Po wasn't exactly a tragedy. It was more like an… apocalypse.

That's what the nightmares were about, really.

When my parents died, it was… horrible. I had nightmares about it for years, until the point where I just got used to not sleeping. For the last few years, I'd finally come to terms with it and beat the nightmares for good…

And then this.

When Shen shot Po with that cannon, my entire world suddenly stopped. For a moment, a single instant- one that seemed to last a thousand years-, it was like I was frozen. It was so cold there, and no matter how loud I yelled, no one answered. I was alone.

That's what Hell must be like. Loneliness. Knowing that you're the reason that everything you stood for would be destroyed. And that horrible coldness…

I shivered despite the warmth of the water. When I'd seen him alive, when he'd hugged me after the fight, when he smiled… it was like being in the middle of the greatest, hottest fire ever seen, and yet I loved the burning. The absence of cold.

But when I'd seen it again, in my nightmare… when I'd heard his scream as the cannonball struck him, it made me go cold all over again.

I climbed out of the bath and dried off, then put my clothes back on. I had to see him. I had to make sure that it had just been a dream, even though I knew it hadn't been real.

But still.

I paid the man who owned the bathhouse, and then quickly walked through the streets back to the inn. I hurried through the halls until I came to Po's room. Quietly, I opened the door.

There. Right there. He was sleeping soundly, obviously worn out from the day's events.

Without even realizing I was doing it, I walked into the room and stopped just in front of his bed.

He looked so safe… so happy…

So… adorable.

I blinked and mentally slapped myself. _What?_

But I had to admit, it was true. He looked so sweet laying there. I felt my cheeks go red at the thought that entered my mind.

_No. Stop acting like a fool,_ I mentally chided myself. _You're just… tired. Exhausted. And you were worried. That's all._

_ Damn, he's cute._

As I stood there contemplating whether to follow through with my plan, I realized that someone could walk in at any moment. I had to do it or leave _now_.

_I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to-_

But really, who the Hell was I kidding? Certainly not myself- or my stupid hormones, for that matter.

"Oh, what the hell," I muttered to myself, and then leaned down and placed a quick kiss on his lips.

Amazingly, he didn't wake up. I turned and started to walk towards the door.

"Hey, Tigress?" Po mumbled sleepily from behind.

I froze. "Po? You're awake?" I managed to whisper.

"Uh… barely. You kinda… woke me… up again…"

I closed my eyes. "My apologies- Really, I'm- I didn't mean to do anything out of-"

"I-" he yawned. "I know. I'm just wondering… we can get some breakfast… tomorrow… if you want."

"I- Are you asking me out?"

"Dunno… too tired..."

My mouth opened and closed for a few seconds, before something finally came out. "Yes."

"Mm… good… G'night." After a moment, I realized he was back asleep again,

"Good night, Po," I said softly. That warm feeling was back in my chest again, and I knew that, at least for tonight, I wasn't going to have any more nightmares.


	19. Chapter 19 Cold

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

**A/N: So you didn't like the last one so much, huh? Maybe this one will be better. (Oh, by the way, even if you don't like this one, please don't be too critical. This one is sort of… personal).**

_ I still don't understand why you get so angry with me._

_ I don't try to do anything wrong. I don't try to be a pest._

_ I just want you to be proud of me._

These and other thoughts raced through my head as I pulled my arms closer around my legs, fighting the biting cold.

_ Aren't you proud?_

_ What did I do wrong?_

_ I can't even talk to you anymore. Not for real. I'm too scared. What if you get angry again?_

_ I don't try to complain. I don't try to get moody. I don't want attention. I just want you to be proud of me, like you used to be._

_ The strong hurt, too._

_ I can't always be perfect. I've tried my best, believe me. I've tried so hard to impress you. Every day, I'm trying to impress you. Almost everything I do, I have to think, "Would he be okay with this? What if he finds out? Will he get angry if I do this?"_

Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to be out here. After all, it was the dead of winter.

_ I've tried everything. I guess that I do want attention, but only the positive kind. I'm not trying to cause trouble._

_ You always get so mad when I cry. It's like you think I want some sort of pity party._

_ Well, I've got news for you! People cry! Everybody cries! I cry! I'm crying right now!_

_ You know, I hate it when adults say, "Oh, I wish I were a child again. Those were the best years of my life! Nothing to worry about, no taxes to pay to the emperor." Liars. Being a child SUCKS. You're trying to balance everything, or juggle it, or try to fit it all into one teeny weeny little thing we call life. And having someone breathing down your neck doesn't help!_

That's why I'd messed up the technique today. Because I was nervous of his judgment.

_ Why can't you just leave me alone? If all you're going to do is yell at me, just go to wherever disappointed grownups go on their time off, because I'm sick of it. _

_ You try to guide me in the 'right direction.' Right for who? Maybe I don't WANT to be a Kung Fu master. Maybe I don't WANT to be little miss perfect. Maybe I'm scared, too. Did you ever think of that?_

The blizzard seemed to be getting worse; I could feel myself slowly start to be pushed towards the edge of the roof, as if the wind wanted to knock me over it. For a second, I considered letting it.

_ How could you have said that to me today? "'You can never be a warrior if you're afraid of battle! You're __**useless**__!'" Seriously, you think I don't understand that? You think that just because I'm a kid, I don't get it?_

_ Oh, and by the way: How DARE you call me lazy and useless! How dare you! I, who worked my butt of for YEARS for you! I, who've faced down my fears because there was a job to do, a fight to be won! I, who FRIGGIN' WON'T LET ANYONE SEE ME CRY BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO CAUSE TROUBLE! You think that you were the only one affected by Tai Lung? You think that because you're the adult, you're the only one hurting here? I GAVE MY ALL AND YOU HAVE THE NERVE, THE AUDACITY TO SAY THAT I'M USELESS AND LAZY! HOW DARE YOU!_

Furious tears were rolling down my cheeks now, freezing to my fur.

_ You think that I'm playing the martyr, trying to get everyone to guess what's wrong with me. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I was trying not to cry, not because I wanted everyone to be worried, but because I didn't want to be the center of attention? Because I __**didn't**__ want you to worry about me when we've got other stuff to worry about? I have cried on my own, over and over, praying, wishing that this would all just end, because no matter what, you never seem to care! I never let you see me cry, because I'm supposed to be strong! And if I cry, you'll just get mad and say that I'm looking for DAMN ATTENTION!_

_ I'm sick of this. I'm sick of fighting for you and crying because of you, just because you're frustrated. WE'RE ALL FRUSTRATED! Deal with it!_

_ I'm trying to be good. I'm trying to be the helpful daughter. But how can I fix my badness if I don't even know what I'm doing wrong?_

_ I've given everything. I've done everything. I've tried so, so hard to make you happy. To make you proud. Please, just tell me: what can I do to make you proud of me again? Because I just don't know anymore._

_ I'm burned out. I'm ten winters old, and I'm burned out. I can't take living in the Palace with you any more. Sometimes, I wish you'd just go away and leave me be. I feel like I'm hitting my midlife crisis before I'm even eleven winters old._

_ Well, I've got some news for you: I am a little girl. I'm not going to be some sort of mini-grownup. I'm going to behave like a spoiled little brat sometimes. I'm going to want to kick a wall or two out of frustration. I'm going to lose my temper._

_ I'm your adopted daughter. I'm your little girl. So why do you act like I'm just some sort of- of disappointment?_

That thought seemed to echo in my head. _Disappointment._ That's all I really was to my master, wasn't I?

_ I just want to make you proud of me again, like when I was a little girl at the orphanage._

I knew that it was dangerous to be up here, especially in a blizzard. But I also knew that no one would come looking for me. Not my master, not Zeng, not even Oogway.

And that was what I wanted. The old turtle had healed my wounded heart enough times before. This time… this time, I didn't want him to heal it. I wanted my heart to turn to stone, because if it was healed, it would only be shattered again, like it had been so many times before.

Like it had been today.

_ Why aren't you proud of me anymore? What am I supposed to do?_

It was freezing up here. I knew that if I didn't get back to the warmth of the barracks soon, I could die.

_ At this point, the only thing I can think of doing is to just stop caring what you say to me, because it hurts too bad to listen anymore. Half the words you say to me now feel like you're just ranting for the sake of it, like you're angry at someone other than me, and I just happen to be in the vicinity._

Maybe yesterday, or any of the days before, I would have come up here, but not today. Today, I wanted that mind-numbing cold. I wanted my heart to loose all it's feeling.

_ Please. Please, just… forgive me for whatever I did wrong. Because I just don't know what it is anymore._

No, I didn't mind the cold, the icy bitter winds or the flying snow.

The colder it was, the easier I could freeze.


	20. Chapter 20 Happy Halloween!

Halloween

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

** A/N: I know that Halloween didn't exist in the time KFP is set. Let's ignore that, shall we?**

"So what are you guys doing for Halloween?" the panda asked, setting the steaming bowls of soup down on the table.

The others looked at him. "Halloween?" Viper asked.

"Yeah. Are you going to dress up or go to the play or what?"

They all gave him stares so blank, it was like looking at a wall.

"Oh, come on!" the panda said. "Don't tell me you don't know what Halloween is!"

"We know what it _is_," Monkey said. "We just don't do much for it."

"Yeah, Master usually makes us stay here and train during anything but the Winter Festival," Mantis agreed.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Po said, wide-eyed. "So you guys have never been trick-or-treating or dressed up or went to the village play?"

"The what?" Crane asked.

"The play. Every year, the villagers put on a scary play on Halloween Night. I was in it a few years ago… but I got banned."

Everyone choked on their soup. "You got banned?" Viper asked, eyes watering. "Why?"

"It wasn't that big of a deal. I just kind of set fire to the stage."

"You set fire to the stage?" Mantis said, laughing.

"Well yeah. I found some fireworks in an old bin… I thought they'd be good for special effects."

Tigress rolled her eyes. "Trust you to bring fireworks into a simple play and burn it to the ground."

"Oh, it's not simple," Po said, with obvious relish. "It's HUGE! They put a _lot_ of time into it. Fake blood, guts, gore, bodies, monsters, demons… you name it, they got it!"

"So what's the play about?" Crane asked.

"It changes every year. Someone told me it was really bloody this time." He looked around. "So will you go?"

They considered it, and finally Tigress said, "I don't see why not."

"WHOO HOO!" Po shouted, making everyone wince. "We'll go to the play and get candy and- Oh yeah! You guys need costumes!"

**KFP**

"Po, I'm going to _kill _you," Tigress growled.

"Aw," Mantis joked. "Is the wittle kitty mad?"

Tigress growled. "_This_," she pointed at herself, "was _not_ what I had in mind for a costume!"  
>Po had handpicked their different roles for the night and had helped them get ready. Monkey was a zombie (his red eyes NOT induced by peppers), Crane a mummy, Mantis a dead bug (not much you could do with someone that small), Viper was (what else?) a vampire, and Tigress was, well…<p>

A house kitty.

Despite her protests, Mantis had knocked her out with some of his acupuncture needles, while the others painted her nose pink, her fur black, and her ears white. Even under the heavy amount of paint, you could still tell _exactly_ who she was by the long white fangs and red-and-yellow eyes, which were consequently furious.

"How do I get this paint off?" she demanded, rubbing at her arm.

"Sorry. It's a twenty-four hour dye," Mantis said (though he really didn't sound to apologetic).

"Great," the tiger master hissed. "Just great. I'm staying here!"

"What, and miss all the fun?" Po said, before hurriedly shutting his mouth at the death glare she gave him.

"Tigress, you're _going_," Viper said firmly.

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are," the snake insisted.

"Make me!"

Viper raised one eyebrow. "I will tell them about _you know _what."

Tigress' ears flattened. "You wouldn't-"

"I'll do it right now, too. In front of everyone. And believe me," she said, flicking her tail at Monkey and Mantis, "They'll _never_ let you live it down."

Tigress growled once more, and then gave up. "Fine…"

"Sweet!" Po said. "Let's go!" He ran for the stairs.

Tigress sighed and glanced at the others. "Does this ever get annoying to you?"

"Does what ever get annoying?" asked Crane, confused.

She pointed with her thumb over her shoulder. At that exact moment, Po inevitably tripped down the stairs.

"Oh, that?" Monkey said. "No. That never gets old."

"Speak for yourself," Mantis muttered, wondering if he should bring along his acupuncture needles, just in case.

**KFP**

"I'm a big strong monster! RAWR!" one bunny growled.

"Aaaah!" his little sister pretend-screamed, before bursting into giggles.

Children laughed and ran throughout the streets, crowding around the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior, or collecting candy at the various doors.

"Dragon Warrior! Dragon Warrior!" one of the kids, a duck, yelled, running forward. He grinned up at Po. "My grandma told me to give you this!" He handed Po a sweet wrapped in gold paper. There was a dragon on it, painted in red.

"Thanks, kid. But seriously, you don't need to give me your candy!" Po said, slightly embarrassed.

"Oh, no! Grandma said she wanted me to give you that one special!" He grinned and handed Tigress one, too. "And this one's for you!"

Tigress took the candy with surprise. "Thank you." She glanced at an elderly duck sitting in a chair on one of the porches. The lady winked at her, though the tiger master wasn't sure why.

"All villagers, please come to the center square; the Halloween Play is about to begin!"

Everybody began to walk towards a sort of grassy spot in the middle of the town, where a low stage and set had been created for the play.

Everyone took their seats, and two actors, the first a duck and the second a pig, came onstage and began to speak.

"Do you know where Mr. Xou went? No one can find him… he's been missing for over a week now," the first actor said.

"That's what I've heard. It doesn't make any sense, does it? Mr. Xou was always on time, and so was his kid, Dehua. The kid's torn up over his father."

"We should go comfort him," the first said. "The poor boy…"

"I agree. Actually, you go ahead; I want to buy some of these peaches." He began examining the peaches in a nearby cart.

"All right. I'll see you later." He left.

As the second actor began examining the peaches, a black hand suddenly reached out from behind and grabbed him. There was a brief scuffle, but eventually the hand won. It dragged the pig back behind. There was a slight pause, before the audience heard a muffled scream, and very authentic-looking fake blood sprayed out from behind, landing on the people in the front row. But it didn't stop there. Three screams later, there was silence, and suddenly a soft thump as a dismembered pig hoof (fake, of course) flew out from behind, landing in the middle of the stage.

The torches lighting the stage were quickly blown out as the set was changed.

The first five warriors watched with apprehension, but the last was visibly shaken. She didn't say anything, but the panda on her right and the snake on her left noticed how she was very, very tense, her fangs barred and her eyes wide. "Tigress? You okay?" Viper asked quietly.

"Fine," the feline answered shortly, her voice a few pitches higher than normal. "Just fine."

The acts that followed gradually got gorier and gorier, until the few parents who had brought their children with soon began to take their sobbing kids out. But the little ducks and rabbits weren't the only ones terrified; a certain tiger master seemed to be going paler and paler, despite her black-dyed fur.

The third act was when the first full body came out. Well, it didn't really look like a body; more like something that had been shoved through a blender. While most people took a few minutes to admire the work the crew had gone through to create such a good dummy, Tigress suddenly grabbed Po's hand in her iron-tight grip, breathing very fast.

"Ow- Tigress- that hurts-" But the feline didn't hear him. "I- can't feel my arm- losing circulation- grandma, is that you?" The panda passed out.

"Tigress!" Viper scolded. For the first time, the tiger master noticed what she'd done to the poor panda.

"Oh. Sorry," she said, quickly shaking Po awake.

"I think you broke something…" he moaned.

"My apologies, I didn't mean-"

"Hey! Keep it down in the back!" someone yelled. They instantly shut up.

Tigress' reactions got worse and worse through the following acts of the play. During the fifth, she actually jumped into Po's lap on accident, causing the panda to go a brilliant shade of red, and Mantis and Monkey to snicker during them remainder of the act. This continued until finally they reached the last act of the play.

That was when it happened. During the final act, Mr. Xou's kid (the main character) was watching a number of innocents be burned to death inside a house by Mr. Wo (the evil villain).

Before anyone could stop her, Tigress had sprung from her seat, ran up on stage, and was holding the poor boar actor (who was playing the villain) by the throat.

"How dare you hurt these people! I will tear you to shreds!" she hissed.

"M-Master Tigress," the actor whimpered. "P-please, it's only a p-p-play…"

That was when she realized that everyone was looking at her. Everyone. They had a peculiar expression on their face, where their mouths were open but no sound was coming out.

Tigress' mouth was open, too, and it also took her a few tries before anything but air came out. "I-I'm so sorry, I don't know what-" She quickly set the actor down and bowed. "My most sincere apologies, sir."

"Um, it's fine, I-I guess."

Realizing that everyone was _still_ looking at her, she hurriedly got off the stage and walked back to her seat. But she didn't stop there. Instead, she walked straight out of the central square and off into the streets.

Worried, Po stood up and went after her. "Wait for us. If we're not back by the end of the play, come looking," he whispered to Viper. The snake nodded, and he left.

Hurrying through the streets, he called out, "Tigress? Tigress, where'd you go?"

He received no answer. After many minutes of searching, right when he was about to give up, he caught sight of something strange in an alleyway.

Moving closer, he realized that it was Tigress. She was sitting on the ground with her knees pulled close, and her eyes were shut tight. She was breathing very fast and making slight whimpering noises.

Stunned slightly, he stayed where he was for a moment, and then walked forward. "Hey, uh, Tigress?" he said softly.

The black-painted tiger looked up at him, startled. "Oh. F-forgive me, Po, I didn't mean for you to see me like this…"

"No, it- it's fine." He sat down beside her. "So. Wanna tell me what's wrong."

She was quiet for a moment, before saying, "I never should have agreed to come to the play. Never."

"Why? I mean, you've seen worse-"

"In battle, yes," she said. "But sitting there and not being able to do anything…" She shook her head.

"But it's just a play," he insisted. "It's not real-"

"It doesn't matter," she snapped. "I don't know how you can just sit there and watch that. It's different when it's real. In real life, we can do something. When it's a play, there's _nothing_ you can or should do. And that's not funny to me, Po. That's sickening."

Without warning, he pulled her into a hug. "I never thought about it that way," he said, pulling away. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you to go."

"No, no. It was my fault for agreeing." She laughed quietly under her breath. "I'm never going to live this down, am I?"

"Nope. Never. Mantis and Monkey are going to be teasing you about this until the end of time." He grinned. "I think it's over. You wanna go back?"

She nodded and stood up. As they were walking back, Po asked suddenly, "Hey, Tigress?"

"What?"

"If you knew you had to go to the play, why did you come with?"

She shrugged. "Viper knows something she shouldn't. She would have told all of you if I hadn't agreed. Funny; this was probably a lot more humiliating than you knowing that."

"What was it?"

Suddenly, she kissed him on the cheek. "That's what."

He blushed even harder than when she'd jumped in his lap. "I- Uh- Um-"

"You know," she said conversationally. "I've actually got more of a sweet tooth than most people know. And considering it's Halloween…"

"Wait a minute, w-what does that mean?" he said. It was his turn to have a voice higher than normal.

She smirked. "What do you think?"

_Oh sweet gods of mercy._

Unfortunately for them, they'd only just started to kiss when the rest found them, lead by a very worried Viper. Needless to say, the whole play catastrophe wasn't the _only_ gossip the villagers had to talk about the next day.

**A/N: Aw, shoot. It was going great until the end there. Aren't endings the hardest bit?**


	21. Chapter 21 Proposal

Proposal

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

Po knocked on the door to Shifu's bedroom. After a moment, he heard the red panda say, "Come in."

He opened the door and walked inside. Shifu was meditating on the floor. Without glancing up, his master said, "Yes, Po?"

"Um… okay, well, I've got this question to ask you…"

"Yes?"

"Er… well, you know how Tigress and I have been dating for a while now?"

Shifu nodded. It was a fact he knew, though not one he was happy to be reminded of.

"Well, I was kind of wondering… see, we're getting pretty serious, and-"

At this point, Shifu jumped up. "Is she pregnant?" he demanded.

"No!" Po said, his eyes going wide as saucers. "She's- I mean, we didn't- she's definitely not-"

"I get the point. What's your question?" Shifu said, sitting down wearily.

"Well… see, I really, really like her. I mean, I love her." The panda grinned absentmindedly. "I can't imagine life without her."

"Yes, yes. What is it you want to ask?" Shifu said, beginning to get irritated.

Po once again became serious. "Well, like I said, I love her. I don't want to live without her. So… I kind of, y'know… want your permission to marry her."

Shifu's mouth dropped open. "You _what_?"

"I want to propose to Tigress. I know she's your daughter and everything, so I thought I should kind of ask you first. So… can I?"

Shifu thought about it for a moment, and then said, "No."

Po's heart plummeted. "But Master Shifu-"

"No is no. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to my meditating." He closed his eyes again.

Po's shoulders slumped. He began to walk towards the door. Just when he was about to leave, Shifu said, "Wait."

He felt his heart lift again. He turned back. "Yeah?"

"Come to me at the end of every week and ask again. If I like what I see that week, I might reconsider."

Overjoyed, Po said, "YES! YES! Thank you, Master Shifu!" He ran out the door, elated over at least having a chance.

The next week, he came in again. "Hey, Master Shifu?"

"Yes, Dragon Warrior?"

"Well… you remember what you said last week?"

"I said a lot of things last week. Which one are you referring to?"

Po shuffled his feet. "Uh… the bit about proposing to Tigress."

Shifu didn't even look up from where he was meditating. "Ah, yes. I remember that."

There was a pause, until Po finally said, "So can I propose to her?"

Shifu opened his eyes, looked him up and looked him down. "No."

And so the panda left.

This continued for a month. On the last day of the last week, Po went in. "Master Shifu?"

"Yes, Po?"

"Er… well I was wondering… could I propose to Tigress today?"

Shifu opened his eyes, looked him up and looked him down. "No."

Another month passed. Again, Po walked into Shifu's room. "Master Shifu?"

"Yes?"

"Listen… I really, really want to propose to Tigress. She's… the most important thing in the entire world to me. So… can I ask her to marry me?"

Shifu opened his eyes, looked him up and looked him down. "No."

Another four months passed, each with the panda coming in dutifully at the end of the week, becoming more and more fervent every time. And yet the answer was always the same: "No."

They hit the nine-month mark sometime in the middle of December. Po went inside without even knocking this time. "Master Shifu?"

"Yes?"

"Well… it's been nine months. Tigress… I mean, she's the most amazing girl in China. In the entire world! Master Shifu, I really, really love her. More than life itself. I was hoping that today… you'd give me the chance."

Shifu opened his eyes. He looked him up and looked him down. "No."

Another three months passed. During practice on the day of the one-year anniversary of Po's persistent requests, Mantis and Monkey were trying to encourage the panda.

"You know what I bet it is?" Mantis said. "I bet it's a test of loyalty! You know, to see if you can wait a whole year! That way, he knows you really care about her."

"He could have just asked," the panda grumbled.

"Today's the day!" Monkey insisted. "He'll say yes today, I'm sure of it!"

"You really think so?" Po said hopefully. His friends nodded. "Thanks, guys!"

He went that night into Shifu's room in high spirits. He'd propose tonight. He'd propose tonight! The very thought made him dizzy.

"Hey, Master Shifu?" he said.

"Yes, Po?" The red panda also seemed to be in a good mood.

"Listen… It's been a year now. You know I'm dedicated to her. You know that I love her. And I do. I love her more than life itself. I'd do anything for her. I can't imagine living a day without her in my life. So… I want to ask her to marry me. Tonight."

Shifu opened his eyes, looked the panda up and down. "No."

It was like doomsday had just set in. Po blinked, and then closed his eyes. "I- I guess I'll… see you tomorrow then. At training."

"Good night, Dragon Warrior."

"Yeah. Good night."

As he walked into the barracks, Mantis and Monkey were both waiting in the hall to hear what had happened. "So man, how'd it go?" Monkey asked.

"What'd he say? Did you propose?" said Mantis.

Po wordlessly walked down the hall and into his room.

Another dreary, dismal week passed. On the evening of the last day, Po glanced at Shifu's room. What was the point in going in? He knew what the answer would be. There was no point-

No point except that if he had somehow managed to change Shifu's mind, then he would get to ask the beautiful, sarcastic, kind, strong, smart, loving, amazing Master Tigress to be his wife for all eternity.

With a wince, Po dragged himself over to the room as everyone left for the barracks. He knocked on the door.

"Come in."

He winced. Shifu was obviously irritated. It had not been a good training day. Not at all. He cautiously pushed open the door. "Master Shifu?"

"Yes? What do you want now?"

He cringed. "Master Shifu… I already know what your answer's going to be. I know there's really no point and that I'm probably just annoying you right now. But… you've got to understand, I'm not going to give up. I _can't_ give up. I mean, this is Tigress we're talking about. I'd face down an entire army for her, and I'd face down you. She's worth that and more. I'd do _anything_ to ask her to be my wife. So… So I'm not going to quit! No matter how many times you say no, I'm going to keep asking! Because there is nothing, nothing I wouldn't do for her!"

The words seemed to ring like a gong in the small room. Po, suddenly self-conscious, took a step back. "Um- so yeah. So… may I marry your daughter?"

Shifu sighed in annoyance and stood up. "Po. You have come in here every week for over a year and asked me the same question. You have been annoying and irritating and altogether a bother. You came here today when I was in the worst mood I've been in since the day you were chosen as the Dragon Warrior. You have the audacity to ask for _my daughter's_ hand in marriage! You have insisted on interrupting my meditation _fifty three_ times over the last year and a week, and I-!"

Po cringed, waiting for the inevitable verbal beating.

"Approve your request."

Po's mouth dropped open. "What?"

"You have shown extreme dedication to my daughter. Had you not come in tonight, I would never have allowed it, and yet even when you thought you knew for certain that my answer would be denial, you still persisted. I told Mantis and Monkey to tell you that it was a year-long test of dedication; that was a lie. It was a year _and a week's_ time of testing, to ensure that you truly meant what you said. You were willing to go through me to be able to propose to my daughter… and as such, I step aside." He bowed to Po. "You have my permission to ask for her hand in marriage."

Po gasped. "Seriously? Aw, thanks, Master Shifu! I promise, I'll treat her like a princess and I'll make sure she's okay and-"

"Yes, yes, yes, all of that. No go on; I want to get back to my meditating."

Po practically ran out the door. Shifu watched him go, and then looked out his window to where Tigress was meditating under the Sacred Peach Tree. He saw Po's silhouette race up the craggy hill, tripping ever now and then, before getting to Tigress. There was a moment of silence as the panda got down on one knee, and then a loud cry as Tigress tackled him in joy.

Shifu sat back down, smiling to himself. "I believe your word, Po," he said to himself. And then, even quieter, "I wonder if I should tell him that I wanted to say yes the first time he asked?"

_~El Fin~_


	22. Chapter 22 Just You

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this. I got my information on Chinese measurement units from http: /en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Chinese_ units_of_ measurement and the conversion from mg to lb from http: /www. metric-conversions. org/weight /grams-to-pounds. htm

**A/N: This is set right after the episode entitled 'Chain Reaction.' Watch it, or this isn't going to make any sense.**

"HA! I knew it!"

Tigress rolled her eyes. She should have known that telling him would only increase his fanboy attitude.

"So you _do_ have a favorite color! And it's red!" He grinned. "Wait, is that why all your clothes are red?"

"_Noooo_," she said sarcastically.

Of course, he took it dead serious. "Really? Then why are they red?"

She growled. "It's from the blood of the last panda that annoyed me."

Po's eyes went, no joke, the size of dinner plates. "Oh," he said, in a small voice.

"Oh for Heaven's sakes, Po, I'm joking!" she said, annoyed.

"Really?" he said, blinking. "You, Master Tigress, are joking?"

"Really." She gave him a look. "I do joke, you know. It's just that you always think I'm being serious."

"Oh yeah? Name one joke you've made in the last day I didn't get!"

"You believed me when I said there was a protocol for a three foot tall rooster holding a banana as a decoy."

"Well… you had that look on your face…"

"That, Po, is the look of someone who just got dragged off a cliff by her handcuffs."

"Oh." He looked down at his hands. "So what _are_ we going to do about these?"

"Get them off the same way you did last time. What did you use?"

"Uh, honey, I guess…"

"Then we'll find some honey once we get back to the Palace."

"Gotcha."

There was another long pause, before she said finally, "You're right, by the way."

Po looked at her, surprised. "About what?"

"About me. I'm a terrible friend." She said this all very casually, as if she were talking about the weather.

"Tigress, I didn't mean that," he said, worried. "I mean, I was just… I was mad, okay? And I was being a jerk."

"Please. You haven't got _háo_ of cruelty in you." (That's a ancient Chinese measurement of mass, equaling about 5 mg {for any American readers, that's about 1.1 lbs}).

"Come on, that's so not true!"

"Regardless of whether it's true or not," Tigress said, "I'm still aware of how bad of a friend I've been… how bad of a person in general."

"Oh, cut yourself some slack!" he said, taking his hand off one side of the statue for a moment to lightly slug her in the shoulder. The statue tilted slightly. "I mean, it's not really your fault. No offense or anything, but it didn't look like you had _any _friends at all when I first saw you. I mean, it you weren't even friends with the others, right?"

She nodded wordlessly.

"And now look at you! You've got _five_ new friends. And that's not even counting Master Mei Ling or the Princess or my dad-  
>"Alright, alright, I see your point! But how exactly does that excuse my actions? I treated you like dirt back there… But you're not angry anymore. I don't understand it."<p>

He grinned. "That's what friends are for. Sure, maybe you were a little mean, but I've got to forgive you eventually, right? So may as well be sooner than later. And besides, I can tell you haven't had a lot of experience with this friendship thing."

"A little mean? _A little mean?_ I insulted you! I disrespected your title! And not just that, I insulted Master Oogway's memory by doubting his decision." She was growling now, furious at herself.

And then the unbelievable happened: Po started laughing.

"W-what's so funny?" she said, stunned.

"Come on, Tigress! If 'doubting his decision' or whatever was insulting his memory, then trust me, I'm the biggest jerk in China!" He grinned at her. "Trust me, I didn't think I was the Dragon Warrior, either."

"What convinced you otherwise?" she said, surprised.

He didn't say anything for a minute, and then said, "Okay, set the statue down."

She blinked, but did as he said. "What?"

"I've got something for you. Close your eyes."

She did. "What's this supposed to-" She felt something drop into her hand, and she opened her eyes in surprise.

There in her paws was the Dragon Scroll.

"Po, what's going on?" she said warily.

"Open it."

"What? Po, you know I'm forbidde-"

"Aw, go on. Trust me, it's fine."

Cautiously, she opened the tube and let the scroll slide out into her hands. She opened it slowly, hesitantly.

"What do you see?" he said, coming up behind her.

"Nothing," she said, stunned.

"Really? Because I see something totally amazing."

"You would. You're the Dragon Warrior," she reminded him. "You're _supposed_ to see something the rest of us can't."

"Okay, um, pretend that you're not looking for anything. Pretend that you're just looking at it, and you don't care if there's no writing or anything."

She blinked. "Well… I see my reflection, but that's it."

"That's it? Tigress, that's a lot!" He smiled. "Look, that's it! You're not _supposed_ to see anything else."

"So you see nothing, too? Even though you're the Dragon Warrior?"

"Tigress, you don't get it! You're not seeing 'nothing!' You're seeing one of the coolest things ever!" He pointed at that page. "You see that girl in the scroll? She doesn't need anything to make her better! She's perfect, just like that." He pointed at the blank scroll. "That's the big secret, okay? _There is no secret ingredient._ It's just you."

She stared at him, completely stunned. "Just me?"

He nodded. "Just you."

She looked down at the scroll, at her own reflection. Slowly, she began to smile. For the first time in she didn't know how long, she felt… different.

She felt proud.

She looked up at him, smiling slightly. "Thank you, Po."

"Yeah, no prob." He grinned at her.

"So how exactly are we going to do this?" she asked.

"Do what?"

"Get into the Palace without the others seeing us?"

He blinked. "Why don't we want them to see us?"

She shook her hand lightly, rattling the chains. "Don't you think that this might be just a _little_ hard to explain? Us being chained together?"

"Good point."


	23. Chapter 23 Friends

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off this.

**A/N: Just a little oneshot on how Po and Tigress became friends after the first movie.**

**Jade Palace (Set after the first movie)**

"Okay, so I hid the cookies in my room. Now where's my room again?" Po wondered, looking through the hallway of barracks. This was his first night back in the Jade Palace for over a month (he'd spent five weeks training in the mountains with Shifu), and he couldn't remember which room was his. "Um… maybe it's this one?" He pushed the door open.

Crane looked up form his calligraphy. "Po? Is something wrong?"

"Uh, no! Just, um, wanna tell you how, uh, y'know, awesome you are." He grinned hopefully at Crane.

The bird sighed. "Your room is at the end of the hall, opposite Tigress'." He went back to painting.

"Gotcha. Thanks." He quickly closed the door and headed from the end of the hall.

He looked at the two doors, both of which were closed. One was Tigress, and one was his. But which one?

He glanced back and forth between the two. Left, right, left, right, left right left right-

He closed his eyes. "Okay. Just choose one. You've got a fifty-fifty chance of picking the right one. Only the wrong door is death by Master Tigress!" He whimpered. "Okay. Okay, I can do this."

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door on the left.

"Did you need something, Dragon Warrior?"

_Oh crap._

He tried to look anywhere but at the feline, who was sitting on her bed reading a scroll. "Um, no, I'm just- I mean-"

"Yes?" She drilled him with those cool scarlet eyes. Obviously her accepting him as 'Master' had done nothing for their relationship.

A relationship that was quickly going to consist of just one person if he didn't get his little panda tail _outta there._

"Just, uh- Okay, I have no clue which room is mine."

"It's across the hall." She went back to her scroll.

"Okay, yeah, thanks, I'm just wondering-"

She sighed. "Do I need to show you out, Dragon Warrior?"

"No! No, of course not!" He took a step back towards the door, and consequently tripped, punching a hole in the wall. _Oh no. Not good, not good, not good!_

With a scary, no, frightening, no, absolutely terrifying growl of anger, Tigress stood up from her spot on the bed… and promptly fell to a knee.

"Master Tigress!" Po said, worried. He ran forward.

The feline was clutching at her chest, her teeth clenched in a grimace of pain. "I'm- fine-" she managed to get out.

"No, you're not!" Po said, frightened. Normally, he _never_ would have contradicted Master Tigress (he happened to value his life), but this was different. He gently put his paws on either side of her shoulders and helped her back onto the bed. She lay down in pain, both paws on her lower chest. Her breath was fast and ragged.

When the pain had finally subsided enough for her to open her eyes. Her hands relaxed somewhat, and she shifted enough to partly sit up, her back against the wall for support.

"What's wrong?" Po asked.

"It's just a few ribs," she said, trying to sound indifferent. "Tai Lung kicked me during our fight. He must've broken something."

"Yeah, no kidding," Po said. "You shouldn't be moving; you need a doctor!"

"I don't need a doctor," she growled. "I'm _fine_."

"You are _not_ fine!" he insisted. "You've got broken ribs!"

"So?" she challenged.

"So you need someone to take care of you!"

That was the wrong thing to say. "I don't need _anyone_ to take care of me!" she hissed. "Not a doctor, not the others, and definitely _not_ you!"

There was a stunned silence between the two of them, before Po finally said, "Master Tigress, I don't care if you don't like me. That's okay. But I do care when you don't like _yourself_."

"Who said I don't like my-"

"You don't have any respect for your own health. You act like you're ten feet tall and arrowproof, but even you can't pretend that you're okay!" He looked her dead in the eyes. "You're hurt real bad, Master Tigress, and I'm getting you a doctor whether you like it or not!"

He turned around and was about to leave, when he heard Tigress say, "Wait."

He looked back. "Yeah?"

"I didn't mean for it to come out like that. It's just… I don't like it when people think they have to take care of me. It was cruel of me to say it that way, and I'm s- " The word caught in her mouth, but she pushed it out anyway. "I'm sorry."

Po stared at her for a moment, and then grinned. "It's fine. What are friends for?"

She ever so slightly smiled back and nodded.

"I'll be back soon with the doctor." He waved and left.

She watched him go, and then picked back up the scroll. _No use in wasting good time._

She began to study it again, before something hit her like a sack of bricks:

_He said we were friends._


	24. Chapter 24 First Kiss

You Can Run…

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda, and I make no money off of this. The idea for this fanfic was Brave Kid's.

"This is a bad idea," Tigress said.

"C'mon, lighten up, Tigress!" Po said. "No one's going to catch us."

"Yes, no one but a red panda that would be _furious_ if he found out we were seeing each other." She glanced over her shoulder for the millionth and second time, as if she thought her master could be following them.

"Tigress it's going to be _fine_," Po said. "Master Shifu's fast asleep, and even if he did wake up and decided to check our rooms, the others are covering for us."

"Right. You said you wanted to learn ironwood training, and I took you to the forest," she remembered.

"Yeah, see? Everything's gonna be okay."

"Last time you said that, you ended up stuck in a tree, tied up with Viper's dancing ribbons and a cookie in your mouth," she reminded him.

"Okay, but that's different!"

They continued their good-natured bickering as they made their way down the steps and through the town, headed towards Mr. Ping's noodle shop.

"Hey, dad!" Po said, waving to his father, who was also in on the whole scheme.

"Ah, right on time!" said Mr. Ping happily. "Come here, both of you, take a seat!"

"Thank you so much, Mr. Ping," Tigress said, bowing. "This means a lot to us."

"Oh, no trouble, Master Tigress!" said Mr. Ping. "I'm just happy that my little boy found someone special!"

"_Dad_!" Po groaned.

Tigress smiled slightly. "I'm flattered."

"Well, it's certainly true." He smiled back and said, "Now, what would you both like?"

"Secret Ingredient Soup!" Po said excitedly.

"Of course. And you, Master Tigress?"

"I'll have the same thing, please."

"One moment then." He quickly walked over to the pot of soup that he already had waiting, ladled some soup into two bowls, and brought it back over to them. "For the lucky couple."

Both of them grinned and looked at each other. Mr. Ping smiled and left.

Tigress took a drink of her soup. "I swear, your dad makes the best soup in the Valley."

"I know. Perfect place for a first date, huh?"

Tigress nodded and ducked her head, a little embarrassed.

"Hey, are you blushing?"

"Of course not!"

"Yeah, you are!"

"I am _not_!"

"Are so!"

"Am n-" Suddenly, she stopped, her ears flicking. "Hide!" she hissed.

"What?"

"Hide! Now!" She quickly grabbed his paw and dragged him into the kitchen.

They hid behind the counter, trying to breath as quietly as possible. "Tigress, what is going o-"

"Shh!"

"Good evening, Master Shifu," Mr. Ping said, rushing forward out of the kitchen. "What can I get for you?"

"Nothing tonight, Mr. Ping," they heard Shifu's voice answer. Po tensed. "I was just looking for someone."

"Really? And who would that be?"

"Master Po and Master Tigress."

They could almost see Mr. Ping blink, surprised. "Master Tigress and my boy? I'm afraid I haven't seen them. Aren't they at the Palace?"

_Wow. Who knew dad was such a good liar?_ Po thought.

"No. Well, they're not in the barracks. The others told me they were in the ironwood forest."

"Were they?"

"I didn't bother checking. They looked like guilty children caught stealing cookies."

"Hm, now why do I remember that look?" Mr. Ping said, chuckling. "I'm afraid I haven't seen them."

"Thank you." There was a pause. "Why are there two bowls on the table?"

Po and Tigress held their breaths. "Oh, two customers left a few minutes ago; I was checking on the soup and didn't have time to clear them. Are you sure you wouldn't like anything to eat, Master Shifu?"

"No, thank you. I'll be on my way." They heard light footsteps as Shifu walked out of the shop.

"Come on," she said, once the red panda was a safe distance away.

"Where are we going?"

"Back to the Palace. We need to get to the Ironwoods."

"But won't he be going to the stairs?"

She grinned evilly. "I know another way."

**KFP**

"_This_ is the other way?" Po said.

"The one and only," she answered.

They were standing at the bottom of a scraggly cliff, which rough stairs had been carved into. The stairs were steep and dangerous.

"Come on," Tigress ordered.

"What, are you insane? We'll die going up those."

"Which do you want, death by falling or death by Master Shifu?"

"Good point."

They quickly started up the cliffs. The minutes passed by quickly, and within ten they were at the top.

"This way," Tigress said, leading him towards a dense forest near the Palace.

Once they were far enough in, she stopped and turned to him. "Punch a tree."

"What?"

"Punch a tree," she repeated.

Po shrugged. "Okay." He looked to the tree. "You want some of this, buddy? HYAH!"

_Pause._

"OWOWOWOWOW!"

"There you two are."

They both turned (Po sucking on his knuckles) to see Shifu standing a ways away.

"Master," Tigress said, quickly bowing. "Didn't the others tell you where we were?"

"Er- yes, they did. But it's a rather large forest, you know."

"I see." She turned to Po and rolled her eyes. "Again."

"Jeez, Tigress! When did you get so sadistic?"

"Again!"

He frowned. "Okay, okay!" He turned back to the tree and hit it again. "OW!"

"I'll leave you to your training," Shifu said. He gave them one more half-suspicious, half-guilty look, and left.

"I'm sorry about that," Tigress said, once he was gone. "But we had to make it believable."

"Yeah, I guess," Po said. "But I still kind of think that I owe you a better first date…"

"No, it's fine. It's perfect, actually."

"What do you mean? We didn't get to eat, we barely made it up the Stairs of Death in time from being caught by your dad- who, by the way, knows Kung Fu and would kill me in two moves if he knew we were going out-, and to top it all off, we-"

She stopped him by putting a claw to his mouth. "It's perfect," she said, "because of _this_." And with that, she kissed him square on the lips.


	25. Chapter 25 Waking Up

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

The Saturday-morning sun was shining through the windows, light and golden. Po blinked to get it out of his eyes, and then rolled over.

He froze.

There, lying on the other side of his futon, was Master Tigress.

For a moment, his mind was racing to come up with some sort of explanation to give to Shifu when he inevitably found out, before he remembered everything that had happened, not the night before, but the _day_ before.

The processions and rituals and celebrations as he and Tigress were bound in Holy Matrimony for now and forever.

He couldn't help but sigh in relief a little as he realized that Master Shifu wasn't going to chase him around the Jade Palace with the Sword of Heroes. This sigh woke his new bride from her sleep.

She mumbled something, and then looked up at him. "Good morning, Po."

He ruffled the fur on top of her head. "Morning, Tigress."

She looked at the height of the sun outside their window. "It looks like it's almost nine; why didn't Master wake us up to train?"

"I don't think even _he's_ mean enough to make us train on our honeymoon."

"Take it easy on him," Tigress said, defending her father.

"Alright, alright. I'll admit, he's a pretty cool guy. At least he didn't kill me when I asked to marry you."

There was a long, but not uncomfortable silence, before Po said, "Hey, Tigress?"

"Mm?"

"Are you sure you're happy with this? I mean, I know that you're really out of my league."

She chuckled. "Two things, Po: Firstly, even if I _wasn't_ happy with it, the deal's done. I wouldn't have much of a choice."

"Well…"

"And secondly," she said softly, "I wouldn't trade this for the world."

He grinned and kissed her gently on the lips. The kiss was sweet and loving, just like him. When they broke apart, neither said anything for a long while, as they just rested in each other's embrace. It was in that moment that they realized that, even if the passion would fade as they got older, it was this quiet love that endured everything.

The quiet continued for a bit, until, suddenly, Tigress asked:

"Po? What do you think about adopting?"


	26. Chapter 26 Knock

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

"Mm…"

She frowned at herself in the mirror, looking between the two different vests. One was her normal red, gold-vine embroidered top. The other was also red, but had green vines lined in silver.

Anyone who knew the tiniest thing about Master Tigress knew that she was _not_ a girly-girl. As in, she only put on makeup for the Winter Festival, and that was about the only time she put on a different outfit, either. But, wonder of wonders, here she was, standing in front of a small mirror in her room, wearing only her chest binding for a top and trying to decide which vest looked nicer.

She wasn't doing it because Viper had told her to. She wasn't even doing it to impress a certain panda. She was doing it because, frankly, Tigress was _pissed_.

After escorting Princess Mei Li home to the Palace, Tigress had began to wonder exactly _what_ had given the princess the idea that she was male? Was it her lack of makeup? Her profession? Her (lack of) chest?

Maybe. Who knew? Regardless of the reason, the tiger master wanted to make very sure that no little kid made the same mistake again. _Ever._

Suddenly, the door opened. "Hey, Tigress, can I borrow OH MY GODS!"

"PO!" Tigress roared angrily, immediately shielding her chest.

He clapped his paws over his eyes. "I didn't see anything! I swear!"

She growled. "For the love of the gods, panda, haven't you heard of knocking?"

"Sorry!"

"You're lucky I don't punch you through that paper wall!"

"Please don't!" Po whimpered.

"You- I- Just keep your eyes closed!" He heard a rustle, and then the jingle of metal. "Alright, you can open them now."

He did so, and saw that Tigress was back in her regular clothes, the other vest on her futon. She was glaring at him, a vein ticking in her temple.

"Sorry," he said again, cringing. "Please don't hurt me!"

She made an irritated noise in the back of her throat. "I'm not going to hurt you, Po. But knock next time!"

"Right, yeah. I'll do that." He turned around to leave.

"Wait."

He blinked and turned back around. "Uh-huh?"

"Can you give me your opinion?"

"On what?"

"On this." She gestured to the vest. "Call me crazy, but… I'm trying to figure out which looks better."

His mouth dropped open. "You? Master Tigress? Trying on clothes?"

"Is there a problem with that, panda?"

"Uh, no! Not at all. Go ahead." He closed his eyes again.

A few moments later, she said, "Okay, you can look."

He opened them, and then opened them a little wider. His mouth fell open. "Whoa."

Tigress looked down at the vest. It was a bit more form-fitting, and the colors were definitely brighter, though it was harder to see from her angle. "This one?"

"Definitely. That looks… amazing."

"Alright then. Problem solved. Thank you for the help."

"Hey, Tigress?" Po said. "What's this all about?"

She hesitated a moment, and then said, "Your remember when Mei Li called me the 'mean man with the stripes?'"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well… I took that as a cue that it was time to become… you know… more feminine." She glanced over to the side, feeling her cheeks grow hot.

"Really?" Po said, surprised.

She nodded. "Really."

"Well, y'know, if that's what you really want… that vest would do it. Trust me."

She glanced down at it. "Truly? I'm not so sure…"

"No, really. It looks great on you." He paused, and then said, "But really, Tigress, she just made a mistake. I mean, we can all tell you're a woman. Mei Li's just a kid; she was probably just looking at your clothes to tell whether you were a guy or a girl. And you can't really fight in a dress, so…"

"Yes, I see what you mean." She thought for a moment, then nodded, satisfied, and said, "Thank you for your help, Po."

"Yeah, no prob." He turned around and walked for the door. Just as he opened it and was about to leave, he glanced over his shoulder, and Tigress saw that his cheeks were a bright shade of pink. "Just so you know, though: that looks really, _really_ good on you."

She went even redder, though of course he couldn't tell. She gave him a small smile. "Thanks."

He nodded, grinned, and then left.

She was about to take it off, when she caught sight of herself in the little mirror. Her mouth fell open.

Po was wrong. She didn't look, 'really, really good.' She looked positively _beautiful._

She stared at the woman in the mirror for a few moments, before she managed to say, "I never thought I'd say this, but… Po, thank the gods you forgot to knock."


	27. Chapter 27 I'll Be Home for Christmas

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda or _I'll Be Home for Christmas_. I got the lyrics from http :/www. azlyrics. com/ lyrics/ lonestar/ illbehomeforchristmas. html .

_I'm dreamin' tonight of a place I love_

"The pass into the Valley is just ahead," Tigress called back to the others. "We'll be back to the Palace by sundown, if we're lucky."

_Even more then I usually do_

The sun was setting over the mountains, and the six warriors, weary from a recent mission, were traveling back home to the Palace. They wanted to be home in time for the Winter Festival.

_And although I know it's a long road back_

It had been a long, tiring journey back from Yao Mó Yué, the famous Demon Mountain. For weeks they'd been struggling through the bitter peaks, hoping against hope that they'd be back in their home, Yú Cun, Jade Village, by the Solstice. Thanks to Tigress' drill-sergeant-like orders and Po's spirit-raising encouragement, they'd just barely made it.

_I promise you_

Hadn't they?

_I'll be home for Christmas_

As they neared the pass, they saw a long line of travelers turning back.

"What's going on?" Crane asked, stopping one of them, a pig, as he went past.

"The pass is blocked by snow. There's another way into the Valley, but it's a two days walk," the pig answered. "Follow the others; they'll get you where you need to go." He continued on ahead.

_You can count on me_

The bird looked back at the others. "I guess we'll have to go the other way."

"You mean… we won't be home for the Festival?" Po said, stunned.

"Oh no…" Viper said softly.

"There isn't a choice in the matter," Tigress said, with a tone of finality. We'll be home the day after the Festival, and that's that." She started off after the other travelers. "Let's get going."

**That Night**

_Please have snow and mistletoe_

_And presents under the tree_

"Hey, Tigress."

The feline glanced behind her. She was sitting on a cliff side, looking out over the Valley that was bathed in the silvery light of a full, snowy-white moon. "Po. What are you doing up? It's late."

_Christmas Eve will find me_

Po didn't answer. Instead, he sat down beside her. There was silence for a few moments, and then he said, "You miss it, huh?"

_Where the love light beams_

"Miss what?"

"The Palace. You wish we could've been there for the Festival."

Tigress sighed. "Wishing never helped anybody, Po."

"Maybe. But you're still doing it."

_I'll be home for Christmas_

She didn't look at him. "Yes, I am. The Palace is my home, and I was hoping that I could be there for the holidays." She shook herself suddenly, as if cold. "But things don't always work out as planned, and that's just a fact I need to accept."

_If only in my dreams_

Po was quiet for a while, and then said, "I miss my dad's shop."

She looked at him. "You do?"

"Yeah. It sucks, not being there. I mean, I've been there every Winter's Eve my entire life. This is my first Solstice away from home."

She nodded. "Mine, too." She looked at him for a moment, and then said, "Hey, Po?"

"Yeah?"

"What you did, last Winter Festival… that was a good thing. We'd forgotten what the Winter Festival was really about." She smiled. "You showed us the true spirit of the Solstice."

_Christmas Eve will find me_

He grinned. "Well… maybe it's not the same here as it is there, but it's still Winter's Eve!"

"That's true," Tigress said thoughtfully.

"And I've got a gift for you. Close your eyes."

"Po…"

"Come on, pretty please?"

She growled, but it was good-natured. "Alright, fine. But this present had better not be anything big. You know I don't like surprises."

"Do you think I could've carried anything that big along with me?"

"Good point." She closed her eyes.

_Where the love light beams_

Without warning, she felt a pair of lips brush her cheek. Her eyes snapped wide open, and she looked sharply at Po, who was blushing redder than a New Year's lantern.

"I said no surprises!" she said, her voice a mixture of shock, embarrassment, and even the slightest bit accusing.

"Sorry," he said guiltily. "I just… I-I couldn't help myself. You looked so pretty and stuff with the moon and the snow and I'm going to shut up now and let you kill me because I kind of deserve it."

"Po, I'm not mad. I'm just a little… surprised," she said slowly.

"Um… good surprised or bad surprised?" _Of course it's bad surprised, you idiot! What were you thinking?_

"I'm… not sure." There was a long, awkward silence, before she said, "I'm sorry, Po, but I'm just not sure yet."

"Oh. Okay. I'm sorry, I just-"

"I know. But, I want to really know before I commit myself to anything." She hesitated, and then said, "Could you do it again? Please?" She went a little red.

"Um, yeah, sure." He leaned forward, nervous, excited, surprised, and totally in love.

_I'll be home for Christmas_

Suddenly, just as he was about to touch his lips to her fur, she turned, catching him off guard. It was too late to stop, and instead of kissing her cheek, he kissed her on the lips.

She pulled away after a moment, breathless with shock. "Po- I- I'm so sorry! I don't know what, came over me, I- Please, forgive me, Dragon Warrior, I didn't mean to do anything improper!"

"I-Improper?" he stuttered. "No, Tigress, it's fine. I mean, it's more than fine, really!"

"Are you sure?" she said, worried.

"Yeah, I'm sure! I'm not mad; why would I be?"

"Well… I did kiss you…"

"Only after I kissed you."

"Hm. Good point." Suddenly, she started laughing. "Look at me, overanalyzing things again."

"Hey," he said, grinning. "You're smart and nice and strong, and I wouldn't like you any other way."

"I'm glad to hear it, because I don't think I could take being a ditzy weakling." They both laughed.

"So, did I make you a little less homesick?" Po asked.

"Yes, I could say you have."

_If only in my dreams_

They sat there in a comfortable silence for a long time, looking out over the Valley, until Po said, "Happy Winter's Eve, Tigress."

_If only in my dreams_

"Happy Winter's Eve, Po."

**A/N: Alrighty, so, I have some dedications to make! First, this story is to those Christians out there that still take the spirit of this season seriously! Joy to the world that Jesus came to save us, amen?**

** Secondly, to a maybe unexpected group of people: this is also dedicated to all of you atheists on the site who haven't given me grief because of my faith. You have no idea how much that means to me, especially in the light of the Christmas season!**

** Thirdly, this is to anyone who's away from home this Christmas. This includes soldiers, travelers, the hospital-bound, and the kids without homes. Best of luck to all of you, and I hope that you're home soon.**

** Happy Holidays to everyone, and God Bless!**


	28. Chapter 28 Answers

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

**Inn (After the Battle with Shen)**

Aimless chatter occupied the six warriors and their master, everyone happy with the giddy sort of relief one gets after surviving the a battle they thought would be fatal. Jokes were told and laughter was returned, even if the jokes were bad and really not that funny. Everyone was passing around bowls of Po's famous noodle soup, sitting on the floor to eat.

Then, right in the middle of the conversation, Mantis asked, "So how did you survive that cannon blast, huh? I mean, that thing would've squashed me flat!"

"You're only fifteen centimeters long, Mantis," Viper pointed out. "Besides, we don't have to talk about that now-"

"No, no, it's cool," Po said. "You remember that goat lady from the Tower of Eternal Flame? The one that was with Shen?"

Everyone nodded.

"Well, Shen must've kicked her out or something, because she found me in the river and got me out."

"That must've taken some work," Monkey muttered.

"But what about the cannon blast?" Crane asked. "That was point-blank, right, Tigress?"

The feline nodded but didn't say a word.

"I had this iron bowl that I guess I must've put up in front of my chest last-second. Without it, I would've died for sure." Po took another drink fro his soup bowl. "Anyway, when I woke up, I was in this little half-hut in my old village."

"That is where you found Inner Peace, am I correct?" Shifu asked.

Po nodded, looking sad. "Yeah. Apparently Shen killed all of my species, except for me. He- he attacked the village because of this prophecy the Soothsayer- that's the goat lady- made a long time ago. She said that a panda would end up beating him, and…"

"He killed everyone?" Viper whispered, shocked. Everyone else was staring at him, wide eyed.

He nodded again, casting his eyes downward. "It was a massacre. I saw the village; most of the buildings were burnt to the ground, and there was this little doll… I think it was mine, but I saw others a lot like it… My mom saved me; I'm the only one that survived."

The air was silent, and then suddenly, Tigress stood up and rushed over to him, throwing her arms around him and embracing him tightly.

Everyone's mouths dropped. One would think they'd have gotten used to it by now- after all, it was the third time this had happened- but it was still a shock.

"Tigress?" Po questioned. In response, she only hugged him tighter.

After a moment, she pulled away. "I told you," she said, and everyone was shocked to hear that her voice was hoarse. "The strong do understand. Better than you'd think."

Po was confused for a moment, before he remembered. "You're an orphan too… aren't you?"

She nodded, and then stood again. "I… need some air." She walked over to the door, hesitated a moment, and then left.

Everyone released a tense sigh.

"What's up with her?" Po wondered aloud.

"Po, Tigress isn't just an orphan," his master said heavily. "As far as we know, she's the last remaining female tiger in our part of the country. There are rumors that there are more of her kind down south, but none in central China."

"Really?" Po said, stunned. "But… why?"

"About twenty-five years ago, nearly all of the tigers were hunted to extinction," Viper said quietly. "It's called the Great Massacre. Master Oogway was the one who put a stop to it, but by the time he got to where the killers were, nearly all the South Bengals were dead."

"But how did Tigress survive?" asked the panda.

"Nobody knows," Crane answered. "Tigress doesn't remember anything before Bao Gu, and none of the people at the orphanage know how she got there. They found her on the doorstep."

Everyone sat in silence for a while, before Po said, "I have to talk to her."

"Po, I don't think-" Crane started, but Po cut him off.

"No. I'm the only one she's going to listen to. I'm the only one who gets what she's going through."

"Well… best of luck then, buddy," Monkey said.

"Yeah, better you than me. I like life," Mantis agreed.

Without waiting for any more comments, Po ran out the door.

Hurrying through the hallways of the inn, he ran outside and looked around. _Where is she?_ He wondered.

"Looking for someone?"

He turned around and looked up. Tigress was sitting on top of the roof.

"Tigress, come on, come down."

"I'd rather not."

"Come on, please?" He made his eyes go really, really wide. "Pretty please?"

She sighed, and then flipped off the roof, landing in front of him with her back to him. "Yes, panda?"

"Tigress, I've got to talk to you."

"I have nothing to say."

"Then just listen." He struggled over his words for a moment. "When I was in the village, it was like… like I was so, so close to finding what I'd been looking for, but when the time came, I wasn't sure I really wanted to find it, y'know?"

She nodded, her back still turned.

"But I didn't really have a choice. I mean, I had to know, or I wouldn't be able to move on." He reached out and let a paw settle onto her shoulder. "Tigress, it's time to move on."

"How?" she demanded. "How can I move on from something I can't even remember, and something I can't forget? How do I do that, Po?"

"By getting your answers. Listen: we're going to go to Bao Gu, and we're going to find out where you're from. We're going to go back there."

"The orphanage had no answers then; they couldn't have anything now."

"We'll check anyway. And if they don't have answers, we'll keep looking somewhere else until we find them. Okay?"

She nodded again, and then turned. Po realized with shock that her eyes were glistening brightly with unshed tears. "Alright," she said, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"So… do you remember anything?" he asked gently.

"No. Well… I remember fire. And blood. And… someone screaming a name, over and over."

"What name?"

"I- I don't remember that well. I think it was… Hui-fang." She took in a shuddering breath, trying to calm herself. "And then there was a lot of smoke, and everything went black. The next thing I can remember is morning role call at the orphanage."

"Okay," Po said. "So we're going start asking about that name, Hui-fang, find what village she was from and who she was. We'll go from there."

"But what if there's no other information? What if it's a dead end?"

"Then we'll keep looking. Tigress, I promise you," Here, he looked her dead in the eyes, "We will figure this out. Even if it takes us a hundred years, we're not gonna give up, okay?"

"You'd- you'd really do that? For me?"

He grinned. "Of course I would! You're my friend; that's what friends do! They're there for each other, right?"

From the window up above, the others saw the tiger master nod, and the panda pull her into a hug.


	29. Chapter 29 Never Have I Ever

Never have I ever…

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

**Barracks**

"No."

"Come on, Tigress, please?"

"I said no and I meant it."

Po scowled. "You're no fun!"

"I'm very fun. Don't you find sparring with me fun?" Tigress said sarcastically.

"No, I find that painful and life-threatening. Come on, please play with us?"

Tigress sighed. "Po-"

"I'm going to keep bugging you until you say yes."

The feline's eyes went wide. She'd learned the hard way that whenever Po said this, he meant it. As in, continually-begging-her-for-three-days meant it.

"Fine!" she snapped. She sat down on the floor of Po's room and crossed her legs, as well as her arms. The others looked at her with amusement.

"Come on, Tigress, it's not that big of a deal," Viper insisted. "It's just a game! See, I'll go first. Everyone, four fingers up!"

Everyone put up their four fingers, (Viper coiled herself into four rings as a substitute, and Mantis raised his two front legs and his antennae high in the air). "Alright," the serpent said. "Never have I ever-"

"Wait!" Monkey said. "We need rules."

"That's right," Crane said. "Alright, so are we going with the regular?"

Everyone but Tigress nodded. "What's the regular?" she whispered to Po.

"You can't use gender, you can't target a person, and you've got to keep it, y'know-"

"Yes, I get it," Tigress said irritably.

"Never have I ever… stolen a whole jar of Monkey's almond cookies," Viper said. Everyone but her, Tigress, and Monkey put a finger down. "Alright, Mantis, your turn."

"Uh… never have I ever… wow, this is hard," Mantis said. "I mean, I've done a lot of-"

"Just pick one!" Monkey urged.

"Okay. Never have I ever… been more than five centimeters tall."

Everyone groaned and put a finger down (Viper unwrapped a coil, and Mantis put down an antenna). "Never have I ever… taken jiu* shots."

"That's targeting!" Mantis accused.

"No it's not. It's not my problem if you're the only one here that's gotten drunk."

Mantis grumbled and put the other antenna down. "It was only once, too. When you're three inches long, there aren't a lot of people with thimble-sized shot cups."

"Never have I ever… eaten more than five almond cookies at a time," said Monkey.

Po put a finger down, and strangely, so did Tigress.

Everyone looked at her in shock.

"What?" she said defensively. "I skipped dinner to train and got hungry!" She looked around, counting the fingers. She and Mantis had two, Po had three, Monkey, Viper, and Crane all had one. She needed to even the score a little. "Never have I ever… threatened to trap Mantis in the flour bin."

Everyone grumbled, and Monkey, Crane, and Viper all put a finger down, leaving everyone but Po with two.

"My turn!" Po said excitedly. "Never have I ever… gone two full days without falling down the Palace stairs."

Now everyone had three, and everyone was desperate to make the others lose. "Never have I ever… hidden Crane's calligraphy brushes for any reason," Viper said.

To her surprise, no one put their fingers down. Apparently everyone was wise enough not to touch the bird's precious materials.

The circle passed around with no eliminations, which was surprising, and ended up back at Tigress.

Now, the feline had one last card to play, though she hated using it. Then again, she was also extremely competitive, and she knew that Po was about to say something that would make her lose.

And Tigress _did not _lose.

"Never have I ever kissed anyone."

Everyone put their hands down at that one, out of the game. Everyone but one.

Po, flushed red, had kept his hand up.

"Seriously?" Mantis said. "Neither of you guys have kissed anyone?"

They both shook their heads mutely, looking at the floor.

"Well," Viper said, and there was something peculiar about her tone, "I guess we're all out of the game. You two can keep going if you want, but I'm tired." She yawned. "What do you say, guys? Ready to turn in for the night?"

"Yeah," Monkey agreed. "I heard that Shifu's making us switch positions on the obstacle course tomorrow." Everyone groaned.

"Yeah, I want some rest for that," said Mantis. "Let's go."

He, Crane, Monkey, and Viper all left, leaving Po and Tigress sitting in the room alone. As Monkey closed the door behind him, the wind from the motion accidentally put out Po's lantern. The room went dark, lit only by the silvery-blue moonlight that filtered in through the paper walls.

"So," Po said. "I guess you want to quit?"

"Yes. You?"

"Yeah."

Awkward silence prevailed. And then-

"So you've really never kissed anyone?"

Tigress sighed. "I never have time for romantic relationships, Po, you know that. And they offset one's chi. Besides, I've never been an object of… attention… for men."

"That's not true." The words popped out before he could stop them.

She glanced at him. "Well. Most men." She shifted her position slightly, as if hoping it would make the situation less uncomfortable. "So you've never…?""

He shook his head. "No girl has ever wanted me."

"I find that hard to believe." Her eyes went wide as she realized what she'd said. "My apologies, I didn't mean it like that."

"Naw, it's cool." There was a pause, and then he said, "Okay, look, I know what we're both thinking."

Tigress sighed. "I'd hoped we wouldn't have to say it aloud."

"Look, if we're going to do this, can we just… do it? I mean, this waiting is driving me nuts."

"You make it sound like it'd be easy." She fixed him with her fiery gaze. "Po, if we do this… things will change."  
>"No they wo-"<p>

"Yes, they will. They always do; you know that as well as I do." She paused for a moment, and then said, "But I'm not afraid of change. Are you?"

"Me? Naw. I think I've kind of gotten used to change by now." He grinned at her. "On the count of three. Ready?"

"Ready."

He breathed in to say the first number, and that was when she kissed him.

His mouth dropped open as she pulled away. "Three," she said softly.

They both grinned at that, and then, quietly, they started laughing. "I don't think I'll mind change that much," Tigress chuckled.

"Me, neither."

"Awww!" four voices said at once.

Both of them whipped around, and saw the four peeking through the slightly open door.

They glared at them for a second, and then Tigress said, "Po?"

"Yeah?"

"Never have I ever teamed up with the Dragon Warrior to chase down my comrades."

"On three?" Po asked.

"On three."

"Run!" Monkey yelled. He and the others scampered for the barrack door.

"THREE!"

***This is the Chinese word for basically all forms of liquor.**


	30. Chapter 30 Soliloquy

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu. I make no money off of this.

I was never good at telling stories.

What? Did you think I was? Really, Po, when was the last time I told you a story?

Anyway, I'm really not much of a story-teller. We really should get back to training-

No, I'm not trying to change the subject!

Fine. We'll take a ten minute break. Ten minutes, no more. Got it? Good.

So, what story do you want to hear?

I'm not telling you The Little Tiger Who Could, Po.

No, not even with a cherry on top. Choose anoth-

No. Not that one.

_No._

Po, that's not a story, that's a history. A twenty-year history. And I'm not going into it!

No, not even if you beg. I don't care what you do, I'm not saying anything!

*Eye twitches.* Stop that.

_Stop that._

YOU PULL MY EARS ONE MORE TIME, AND I WILL PULL YOURS OFF YOUR HEAD AND MAKE YOU EAT THEM!

Grr…

_Fine._ But this is going to be very short. _Very._

Well… I guess it started about the time I first came to the Palace. That's when I first heard the name Tai Lung.

Oh, no, Master Shifu didn't tell me about him. He never said anything about Tai Lung. Never said so much as the name. Oogway told me, actually.

Master Shifu never said much about anything, really. Unless it was a criticism, of course. Yes, he said plenty of those.

He was always so… formal. I can't think of one instant that he called me his daughter.

You don't seem surprised. I suppose you knew that he adopted me? Impressive; not many people know that.

Anyway, he always had something to say. My form was off, my blocks weren't strong enough, my kicks were too weak.

You know, I don't remember him ever truly complimenting me.

Funny, really. When I work at something, I can usually get what I want. But not that. That's the one thing I could never earn from him.

I wanted that attention. Craved it. All I wanted was for him to give me a nod or a smile, some sign of approval. For him to just _look _at me without seeing through me.

Just once, just _once_ he could have really looked at me! Was that too much to ask? Was I being selfish? Maybe. But didn't I deserve that? Didn't I at least earn the right to be seen?

Well. I guess not. I guess I was always just _second best_.

It hurt. It hurt a lot.

What? Are you surprised? Did you think my heart was made of stone?

Please. Hearts are made of flesh. Flesh can be torn. Flesh can be burnt.

Flesh can be cut.

It was like a knife. Day in and day out, I was never good enough! Over and over and over! He cut and he cut and no matter how much I wished I could feel nothing, I would always feel like I was being burnt alive!

Oh, he never hit me. I guess he never even said anything to me, really. Maybe that was what hurt the most. Not what he said, but what he _didn't_ say.

Yes, that was it. That silence. That horrible, horrible silence… And that look in his eyes of such utter disappointment. As if I hadn't just failed, but was a fail_ure_. And eventually, I began to believe that. I began to realize how very little I amounted to. I began to understand that the only way I was ever going to be worth something was to get better. So I did.

I wanted to show my value. I wanted him to know that I wasn't _completely _useless. I wanted to prove my worth to him, to the others, to everyone!

I wanted… I wanted everyone to be proud of me. Especially Master Shifu.

I told myself it wasn't his fault. That he'd been hurt by Tai Lung. I told myself that every day, to try and justify the pain.

And then one day, it finally hit me: if Tai Lung had hurt him, and he was hurting me, then what was the difference between them?

*Laughs bitterly.* It brought a whole new meaning to the phrase, 'Like father, like son.'

But it wasn't just the silence, the hurt, the disappointment. It was that total absence of love.

That was all I wanted from him. That was it! All I wanted was for him to love me! To be proud of me! Was that too much to ask? Was his pride too much to want?

*Stands up* How proud are you now, Master? Are you finally proud of me? Tell me how proud you are! *Punches the nearest pillar.*

_Tell me! _*Punch!*

TELL ME! *PUNCH! The pillar cracks up the middle, the sound ringing in the empty hall.*

*Suddenly realizes again that she isn't alone*

Oh. *silence* My apologies, Dragon Warrior. I didn't mean to lose my temper. Believe me, it won't happen again.

Just forget about it. I don't know what came over me.

Really, Po, I'm fine. As a matter of fact, I feel better than ever.

Really, I do.

You don't believe me? That's all right. I wouldn't believe myself, either. But I'm telling the truth.

You want to know why? It's very simple, really.

For the first time in my life, I actually said what I was thinking. Something nobody wanted to hear. Something for _my _sake and nobody else's.

*Laughs again* I can't believe how wonderful that feels. To be honest.

But we have work to do. After all, I've spent my entire life trying to earn his approval; it's too late to stop now. Isn't it?

Come on, Po. Let's go back to training.

**A/N: So did you like it? Hate it? This was done in more of a soliloquy, which is when an actor or actress delivers a monologue, regardless of onlookers or listeners. Review and tell me what you think, please!**


	31. Chapter 31 Destiny

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

**A/N: Set after the first movie.**

Tigress wasn't one to eavesdrop. She had her honor, her dignity, and she respected that right of others. After all, if everyone around her was dropping in on _her_ private thoughts, she would have an awful lot of explaining to do.

But when she heard her name mentioned as she walked past the kitchen early that morning, she couldn't help but stop to listen.

"-Tigress is- I mean, she's-" Po laughed a little. "I guess the only way I can say this is that she's totally awesome."

Shifu chuckled.

"But that's why this is so rough, you know? I mean… she's, like, my hero. And I just can't get why she hates me!"

_Hate him? I don't hate him._ She frowned and listened closer.

"I mean, I know that none of you guys really liked me when I first came here, but the others are all cool about it now. I mean, you aren't trying to kick me out of the Palace anymore. So why does she still hate me?"

Shifu sighed. "I can't say for absolute certain what all her reasons are, but I know that the main one is that she feels like you took something from her."

"What? What did I take?"

"Her chance at being the Dragon Warrior."

Silence.

"B-but I never wanted-"

"We know that, and so does she. But she devoted her entire life to becoming the Dragon Warrior. She is everything she was taught to be… everything _I _taught her to be." Another sigh. "She's lost the very thing she considered to be her destiny. But she'll come around eventually. For now, my only advice is to not make her any angrier than she already is."

"Okay. I'll try…"

"Good. Now, the gong is about to ring, and if you want to make sure no one knows this conversation ever happened, then I suggest you get back to the barracks."

"Gotcha, master." She heard the door to the outside open, then shut.

Quietly, she went through the hallways to the other door and snuck back to the barracks, her mind repeating the same phrase over and over:

_She hates me._

The words seemed to echo around in her head, giving her a harsh, burning feeling in the pit of her stomach. Cold Tigress may have been, but she was not without integrity or a conscience. In fact, if there was one thing Tigress prided herself on, it was her character and honor. And at the moment, that character was in question by none other than herself.

_I have to set this right._

**That Night**

Po awoke to a paw covering his mouth. He tried to scream, but the paw muffled it.

"Shh!" a voice hissed. "It's me!"

"Mm-mm?" Po tried to say. _Tigress?_

"Yes, it's Tigress. I need to talk to you." She took her paw off his mouth and whispered, "Follow me."

Having absolutely no clue what was going on, he rolled out of bed and, rubbing sleep from his eyes, he followed her outside.

He didn't know how long it was before he found himself standing in front of the Sacred Peach Tree. "Tigress, whassgoinon?" he mumbled, yawning.

"I need to talk to you about what you said to Master Shifu this morning.

_Now _he was awake. His eyes wide open, he said guiltily, "You heard that?"

"Yes, I did."

There was an awkward silence, and then they both started speaking at once.

"I didn't want you to hear-"

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop-"

"I just wanted to know why-"

"But you need to know why, and-"

"I'm sorry," they said in unison.

More silence, and then:

"Why?"

She sighed. "Why what?"

"Why do you hate me?" Po said. "I mean, I know that you wanted to be the Dragon Warrior and all, but-"

"It's not that simple."

"Then explain it to me."

She growled. "Po-"

"Come on, Tigress. I'm not going to sit around and let you glare holes in the back of my head every day! What's wrong?"

She closed her eyes for a moment, and then opened them again. Po took a step back; they seemed to be made entirely of fire.

"You really want an explanation?" she demanded.

He nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

"Fine. Other than Kung Fu, what's something you love to do more than anything in the world?"

"Uh… cooking. I guess."

"Alright." She thought for a moment, and then said, "Look at it this way: Pretend that, ever since you were little, your father raised you to become the Imperial Chef to the Emperor. And you practiced and you practiced, and soon, cooking was your entire life. You were so completely dedicated to learning how to cook, to becoming the Imperial Chef, that nothing else mattered. Of all the other apprentices that studied under your father, you were the best, and you knew it. You _knew_ that becoming the Imperial Chef was your destiny.

"And then, on the day that the Emperor comes to choose the Imperial Chef, you and the other four apprentices have a cooking contest. The Emperor watches the first four, and then it's your turn.

"You're about to show him everything you've learned, everything you've dedicated yourself to. And then, suddenly, a spectator stumbles into the kitchen. Not just any spectator, either: a latecomer that wants only to see who becomes the Imperial Chef. And, without even having the chance to show the Emperor your skills, what you've learned, what you've spent twenty years training in, he chooses the spectator: someone who has never cooked in his life and can't go two minutes in a kitchen without knocking over a spice jar. And what's worse-" Here, she laughed bitterly, "What's worse, you and the others have to follow them to the Palace, where you look on as your father and the emperor train and teach this new apprentice how to cook. And soon, he's greater than you ever could have hoped to be. And what hurts the most, Po… What hurts the most is that they never even gave you a chance."

She looked away, over the Valley. "That's what makes me so furious. It wasn't even that I wasn't good enough: I was passed by without even being allowed to show what I'd trained _twenty year_s for! Everything I'd ever hoped to be, hoped to accomplish… all of that was gone in an instant, and I hadn't even had the chance.

"I could take failure. I could take not being good enough. I wasn't Tai Lung. Yes, it would've been devastating. But to know that I was never in the running? To know that I wasn't even considered by the universe? That I never even got to show that, even if it wasn't the best, I still had some skill to offer? You were chosen instead, and I was left standing at the wayside, not even having been allowed to show what I could do."

Po stared at her as she finished, not meeting his eyes. "That sucks," he said finally. "I mean… I never thought of it like that." She didn't answer. "Tigress, I'm so sorry…"

"For what? Something you could never help? No, I'm the one that owes you an apology." She fixed him with her fiery gaze. "I treated you so horribly that you have gotten the impression that I hate you."

"You mean, you don't?" he said, surprised.

"No. I just hate that everything I've ever worked for is gone." She looked out over the Valley. "Protecting these people is my life, and it's a duty I don't just take seriously: I _cherish _it, with all my heart. I believe absolutely and completely that this is what I was intended to do, and I love doing it. This is my destiny… or it was."

"Is it not anymore?" Po said, confused.

"No. Yes. I'm… not sure," she admitted. "I've just always believed that with the secret of the Dragon Scroll, I'd finally be able to fulfill my duty."

Suddenly, she felt a paw settle on her shoulder. Surprised, she looked over at the panda.

"You know," he said quietly, "Just because you're not the Dragon Warrior doesn't mean that it's not your destiny to be a hero."

She blinked, startled by how much he understood. "How did you-"

"I kind of know these things when I see it. You want to be the hero, right? You want to protect everyone, and you'd give your life for someone you don't even know without a moment's hesitation, right?"

"Of course," she answered immediately.

"There you go. See, I get what you're feeling, because I've always kind of felt the same way. Like I want to make sure everyone's okay, but up until now, I haven't been able to do anything about it. But now that I know Kung Fu, I can finally do something."

She nodded. "I can understand that." Then, her face grew troubled again. "But what I still can't understand is _why_ I wasn't even given the chance…" She trailed off, looking up into the stars as if hoping they'd give her an answer.

He smiled, a little sadly. "It's not that the universe didn't pick you, Tigress. You just have a different destiny." He was quiet for a moment, and then said, "I guess you can say I've kind of been where you are. I mean, my entire life, my dad wanted me to be a great noodle chef, just like you said."

She glanced at him, surprised. "Really?"

"Yeah. So he was really surprised when I became the Dragon Warrior. But… he's still my dad, and he still loves me." He hesitated a moment, and then put a hand on her shoulder. "Master Shifu really does love you, Tigress. He just has a hard time showing it."

She was silent for a moment, and then said quietly, "I guess he and I are two of a kind, then." There was a moment of silence, and then she suddenly said, "Do you ever think-" She cut herself off.

"Think what?"

"Forget it. It's not important."

He smiled, a little sadly. "I'll do everything I can to make things better between you guys, Tigress. But if you want you two to finally be a family… you're going to have to make the first move."

"Why me?" she said, almost to herself.

"Truthfully? Because he's scared out of his freakin' mind that you're going to reject him."

She shot him a sharp look.. "What? That can't be true."

"He told me so himself. Well, not in exactly those words, but I could tell what he meant. The guy is terrified that it's too late for you to ever think of him as more than just a master. He's not going to force you to be his daughter, so you're going to have to make the choice to change things."

There was a long silence, before Tigress said, "I'll try. But things won't change overnight. It'll probably be a long time before we come to any sort of conclusion."

"So long as you try."

"So," she said, her tone a little more courteous. "Is everything… all right between us, then?"

"Yeah, totally!" he agreed with a grin. "So… you don't hate me?"

"No." She smiled a little. "But that doesn't mean I won't kick your tail in sparring tomorrow."

"I wouldn't expect anything different from you, Master Tigress." He stood up and offered her a paw.

"Chivalry's overrated," Tigress said, taking the paw. "But that doesn't mean it's not appreciated."

"Come on, let's go back." They started to walk away, but as they did so, Po said, "Wait a moment!" He ran back to the tree.

"Po, what are you-" She started, and then frowned when he pulled two peaches off the lowest branch. "Po!" she scolded. "You're not supposed to do that."

"Aw, come on, Tigress, it's fine! Oogway gave me one of these the night he, you know, passed on." He handed one to her.

"Oogway let you eat one?" she said doubtfully.

"Yeah! And they're really good, too." He nudged her in the ribs. "Go on, take a bite."

She frowned for a moment, and then raised the fruit to her mouth. As she was about to take a bite, she looked over at Po. "Thank you," she said softly.

He grinned again and nodded. "No prob. Now eat!"

She laughed, and with that, they both took a bit out of their peaches. They were sweet and ripe.

"These are good," Tigress admitted, taking another bite.

"See? I told you so."

As they continued talking and walking back, neither noticed the lone figure standing at the base of the peach tree, glowing softly in the gentle moonlight.

Oogway smiled slightly. "One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it, but when two's destinies are so intertwined, they often find themselves traveling the same road together." With one last look at the two warriors, he bowed his head, and the peach petals gathered him away into the heavens.

_Fin_


	32. Chapter 32 Winter Festival

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

** Dyltzo: Aw, crap, I did it again, didn't I? I'm always making mistakes like that hand thing; that's why I read through my chapters before I post them. Oh, and the time is morning by the way; I should've made that clear, other than just saying that the gong was about to ring.**

It was that time of year again: the time for giving gifts and saying hello to old friends. The time to rejoice and light up the darkest night of the year with solstice bonfires and lanterns. The winter festival was a wonderful time for all, including the great Kung Fu masters of China.

The vote had ben unanimous: Solstice Eve at Mr. Ping's noodle shop was the place for the Winter Feast once again. Abandoning outdated tradition once again, the masters began to arrive around five in festive clothes, eager for a bowl of Secret Ingredient Soup.

Po watched them come in, taking orders in his holiday clothing: new red pants and a nice red and green scarf. "Hey, Master Ox!" he said, coming up to the table. "What can we get you tonight?"

"Your father's famous soup, Dragon Warrior," the ox said, smiling.

"Gotcha!" He went back around to the kitchen and said, "Another order for the usual, dad!"

"Of course," Mr. Ping said with a smile and handed him a bowl of steaming hot soup.

Po carried it back to the ox and was about to set it down when the five came in through the circular entrance and into the main shop area. "Hey, guys!" he called enthusiastically.

"Hey, Po!" said Viper, the first to come in. She was wearing new flowers on her head, and twined around her were two golden strings. Mantis, Monkey, and Crane followed her.

Then, Crane stepped out of the way, and Po dropped the bowl of soup.

Tigress walked towards him, dressed in a scarlet vest that crossed from right to left and went a little past her waist, flaring out at the bottom. Embroidered in gold and black on one side was a tiger, and in green and gold on the other side was a dragon. The vest was buttoned together across the side with three buttons, all in the shape of a yin-yang.

Po quickly bent down and picked up the shards of porcelain, promising to get Master Ox another bowl, all the while keeping his eyes on the feline. The ox just chuckled and told him to take his time.

As he walked back to the kitchen, Tigress followed. "You look busy," she commented to him and his father. "Mind if I help?"

"Oh no, Master Tigress, not at all," said Mr. Ping, handing her a few bowls. "Tables four, seven, and nine, if you please."

"Will do."

As she and Po walked out together, Po leaned over and said, "_You_ look amazing."

"Really? Thank you."

"I didn't know you owned that vest."

"I didn't; I just bought it today. Well, Viper picked it out, but I'm the one that agreed." She laughed a little and looked down at it. "I told her I had two rules: No pastels, and I still had to be able to kick a man's ass in it. Other than that, I just wanted to look a little nicer for the holidays."

"Well, mission accomplished, Master Tigress," said the panda, sliding a bowl across one of the tables.

"You don't look bad yourself," she said, glancing at him. "I like the new pants."

"Thanks." He grinned and said, "Oh, and thanks for helping us out, by the way; we're way busier this year than last year."

"Well, thank _you_ for giving us a real Winter Festival," she said. "Tradition was beginning to irritate me."

"Really?" the panda asked. "I thought someone like you would love all those customs and stuff."

"Only when it has a purpose. Without purpose, it's meaningless."

"So, why didn't you say anything?" said Po, putting down another bowl.

She shrugged. "When you grow up with ancient traditions all around you, you learn to keep your mouth shut and try not to ruin anything." She chuckled slightly. "You could also apply that phrase to growing up with ancient artifacts around you, as well."

They both laughed at that, and then someone said from behind them, "Aw, look at the two lovebirds. All we need now is mistletoe."

Both of them whirled around and glared at Mantis, as did Crane. "I take offense to that!" the bird snapped.

"Aw, shut it, feathers."

"And that!"

"We are _not_," Tigress snapped, "A couple."

It was a phrase both she and the panda had been repeating for about three months, ever since Gongmen City. One would think it would stop being funny after a quarter of a year, but no, not to Mantis or Monkey.

"Yeah, sure," the primate said. "Because those hugs were just total accidents."

"They were from one _friend_ to another _friend_," Po said. "As in, we're just _friends_."

"Yeah, okay," Mantis said, obviously not believing them. "By the way, Mr. Ping called you back behind the shop; said he wanted some help with the crates."

"Alright," Tigress said, and she and Po went through the kitchen and out behind the shop.

They looked around. "Mr. Ping?" Tigress called. Nobody was there. "What on earth-?" She turned back around and tried to open the door.

It was locked.

They both stared at it for a moment, before Tigress said very calmly and matter-of-factly, "I'm going to kill them."

"Tigress, wait-!" He suddenly tripped over his own feet and fell into her. They both toppled over into the snow.

"Po, get off me!" Tigress snapped, trying to get up. She jerked her head up.

And suddenly, their lips met.

Her mouth fell open as he jumped up, holding his hands up in defense. "Don't kill me! I'm sorry! Really, I didn't try to do anything!"

"It's- it's alright," she said, stunned, as she stood up.

"Are you sure?" he said, worried. "Hey, I didn't hurt you when I fell on you, right?"

"No. No, I'm fine."

There was a long, awkward silence, before Po finally broke the silence. "Listen… I get it if you're mad at me, but please, I don't want things to be all awkward and stuff. If you're mad, you know, just… start yelling at me or whatever."

"Po, really, I'm not angry. It was an accident."

"There are no accidents," a voice said from beside them.

They both whirled around. Shifu was looking at them, his hands held behind his back.

"M-master Shifu," Tigress stuttered. "Are- I mean- how long have you been here?"

"Long enough."

"Okay, so now _you_ want to kill me?" Po said slowly.

"No. Excuse my interruption; carry on."

"That's not funny!" Tigress snapped. Then, she forced her tone to be more civil. "I meant, it was just an accident."

Shifu chuckled slightly. "I know that. I just can't help but think of what Master Oogway would say."

"What?" both students said, confused.

He waved a hand. "Never you mind. I'll see the two of you later." He turned around and left.

A moment or two passed, before Po said, "Um, we should probably, uh…"

"Right. Let's go back in."

They both walked through the snowy back-roads in silence, neither sure of what to say. When they got back inside, Po went to serve the customers, while Tigress went over to Mantis and Monkey to do a different kind of 'serving.'

"You know, when I said take your time, I really didn't mean ten minutes."

Po glanced down at his customer, Master Ox. "Oh, uh, sorry." He glanced back over at Tigress, who happened to look his way at the same time. The both looked away, blushing.

Master Ox smiled. "Go ahead. I can wait, but I'm not sure if she can."

He grinned. "Thanks, Master Ox!" He ran over to Tigress.

She sighed. "Yes, Po?"

"Listen… there aren't so many people now, and my dad can handle the customers… do you want to go see the folk dances? I know you like them."

"Oooh," Mantis and Monkey said in unison.

Tigress shot them a nasty glare, and then turned back to Po. "I'd love that, Po. Thank you."

As their friends catcalled behind them, the panda and the tiger walked out of the shop, and into the clear, Solstice night. Neither noticed the elderly red panda standing beside the doorway, who looked up at the sky.

"You're right, Master," he murmured. "There are no accidents." And with that, he turned and went back inside to the celebrations, smiling all the while.

**A/N: This oneshot is dedicated to God Almighty, who came down in the form of a tiny child, poor, vulnerable, and weak, to save us all. **

** "…the angel said to them, '**_**DO NOT BE AFRAID**_**, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy which will be for all people. For today in the city of David there has been born for you a **_**SAVIOR**_**, who is CHRIST THE LORD!"**


	33. Chapter 33 Ecclesiastes

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda or the Bible. I make no money off of this. I got the bible verses from http: /www. biblegateway. com/passage/?search= Ecclesiastes+3%3A1-8& version=NIV

_Ecclesiastes, 3:1-8_

**There is a time for everything, **

**and a season for every activity under the heavens:**

**A time to be born **

The panda looked down at her newborn baby son, who was sleeping quietly in his blankets for the first time since his birth hours before. She sighed in exhaustion, stroking the tiny baby's fur with her paw.

**and a time to die,**

As she placed him in the radish bin, she knew without a doubt that this was her final stand. No more running or hiding; this was the end for her, and the beginning for her child.

**a time to plant **

Mr. Ping looked out his window that fine spring morning and smiled. "Ah, it's planting season!" he said, to the two-year-old panda at his feet. "The farmers outside of the village are all getting ready for crops; we'll have fresh vegetables by early fall!"

The baby only cooed in response.

**and a time to uproot,**

"Gather as much food from the fields as you can!" a tiger shouted. "Hurry!"

Other felines raced for the fields, desperate to gather food fro the long journey north. Invaders were coming in from the south, threatening their lives.

As they left, running for their lives, nobody noticed the small tiger cub still in her cradle.

It was only by chance she was saved; a sympathetic invader hid her away in his cloak, and when they passed by an orphanage, laid her on the doorstep.

**a time to kill **

"I hate this," Po mumbled, looking down at his red-stained paws. He turned to his striped comrade. "Why do we have to kill them?" he demanded. "Why can't they just surrender and save themselves? Why do we have to take their lives in order to save other people's?"

She laid a hand on his shoulder. "Sometimes we have no choice but to kill to protect," she said, her voice full of a bitter sort of empathy only a fellow warrior could understand.

**and a time to heal,**

"I won't!" she snapped angrily at the panda, who was sitting by her bedside. "I won't be bedridden for three months, Po, I won't!"

"You have three broken ribs, Tigress," he replied. "And you can't train in crutches."

She huffed and lay back down against the pillow. "Fine. But I am kicking your tail in sparring the minute I get into the training hall again."

Po thought about this, and then agreed that it was fair.

**a time to tear down **

"The silk shop will have to be torn down; the wood has been infested with termites," Shifu said to the shop owner.

The elderly sow's lips began to quiver. "But- But I have no other source of income! I will starve without the shop!"

"Which is why we will help you rebuild and support you during that time in the Jade Palace," Tigress said.

The lady sighed and smiled in relief. "Thank you, master Tigress!"

"Not me. Po's the one that thought of that." She smiled at the panda, who blushed modestly.

"Aw, it was nothing," he said, ducking his head.

**and a time to build,**

"Hey, Tigress, I dropped my hammer!" Po said, from up on the roof. "Can you get it for me?"

She nodded and reached down into the grass, before tossing it up to him. He caught it and grinned. "Thanks!"

"No problem!" She went back to pounding in the nails.

**a time to weep**

She cried into his shoulder, sobbing harder than she had in twenty years. Po held her close, as the peach blossoms fell around him like her tears.

**and a time to laugh,**

Everyone froze as the panda accidentally tripped over the chair and spilled Tigress' bowl of soup, all over her. They looked nervously at the feline, wondering if they'd have to step in to save Po from her fury.

But Tigress only laughed and said, "Po, you should look where you're going." She picked up the shattered remains of the bowl and handed it to him. "I'll be back; I'm going to go change my vest."

**a time to mourn **

It wasn't easy, being a grandmaster. It was a fact both the panda and the tiger knew all too well in the last few days.

As they sat together in meditation at the falls, Po suddenly asked, "Do you miss him?"

"More than you can imagine."

There was a moment of silence, before Po realized that silent tears had started trailing down his cheeks. He looked at Tigress, as if to apologize, only to find that she was crying, as well.

**and a time to dance, **

"Come on, Tigress!" Po said, tugging at her hands. "Please?"

She shook her head vehemently. "I don't dance."

"But you love the folk dances!" he said, gesturing to the colorfully robed dancers in the middle.

"I love _watching_ them."

He gave her 'puppy dog' eyes. "Please? As a Solstice gift for me?" When she still refused, he said, "Come on, just have a little fun in your life!"

She sighed and stood up. "Fine. But only once."

In the winter festivals to come, the others would snicker to one another that that 'one dance' had lasted all night. The panda and tiger, of course, would never hear them; they'd be repeating their custom and dancing the night away.

**a time to scatter stones **

"So you seriously don't know how to skip stones?" Po said, surprised.

"Don't laugh at me!" Tigress snapped.

"I'm not laughing! Here." He picked up flat rock off the sand beside the lack. "You hold it like this, and then you kind of throw it like a Frisbee." He did so, and the rock went skipping off across the water. It hit four times before it sunk. "See? Now you try."

"Alright," she said doubtfully. She picked up a stone and copied his actions. The stone skipped twice and disappeared beneath the water. "I did it!" she said, surprised.

"See? I knew you could!"

**and a time to gather them,**

"Gather as many large rocks as you can find!" Tigress ordered. "Drop them on the attackers from above!"

"Right!" Po said. He and the others dispersed, looking for rocks.

An instant later, Po called, "Hey, Tigress, will this work?"

She looked behind her. There, ending the path up which the invaders would come, was a large boulder.

She stared at it for a moment, and then agreed. "That'll work." She ran over to help him push it down the path. Soon the others were at her side, loosing the rock from its hold.

When the large boulder finally rolled down the path, it knocked over the invaders like so many bowling pins.

**a time to embrace **

"Oh, uh, heh," Po said, when she asked him one morning about what had happened in the harbor. "Well, I was just glad to see that you were alive, you know?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you looked pretty beat up in the water. I didn't know if you'd survived through the battle, and I was worried for you."

She nodded, and then suddenly, the panda felt himself be pulled into a hug. "Thank you," she whispered in his ear. And then, with that, she broke away and walked out of the kitchen.

**and a time to refrain from embracing, **

"Archers, at the ready!" Tigress roared.

All the imperial archers drew their bows back as the opposing army drew forward.

"READY FOR ATTACK!"

The air was silent, tense, waiting. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath, knowing that for many of them, this was their final day.

Such thoughts were also going through the panda's mind, and he said softly, "Hey, in case we don't survive this… I love you, Tigress."

She didn't even glance at him. "Love you too, Po. But can we save this for after the fight?"

"Gotcha."

**a time to search**

"She's here somewhere!" Po insisted, digging through the rubble.

"Po," Crane said, still shocked by the death of their comrade. "Po, I don't think she made it-"

The site of one unearthed, orange claw cut the bird off. Po paused a moment, barely daring to believe it, and then began to dig even harder through the rubble.

He pulled the last stone off her and pressed an ear to her chest. Very faint, but still there, was a heartbeat.

**and a time to give up,**

"I've got to find it!" he said to himself.

"Find what?"

He whirled around. Tigress was standing in the doorframe.

"Oh. Um, nothing."

"No, really, what is it?"

He shuffled his feet, and then mumbled, "It's your Winter Festival gift."

She blinked. "You- You got me a gift?"

"Yeah. A yin-yang charm. But… I lost it." He looked down at the ground. "I can't find it; I'm giving up. I'm really sorry."

"Po… It's fine," she said. "I mean, I didn't think you would get me a gift, especially with the way we've been fighting these last few days." She looked away, and then pulled something out of her pocket. "This… is for you."

He took it and looked at it. It was a yin-yang charm, exactly like he'd gotten her. "Tigress…"

"I didn't know you were getting the same thing for me." Suddenly, she said, "Isn't that it?" She pointed to a small charm on floor by the window.

He ran over and picked up. "Yeah." He grinned, and then handed it to her. "You never would've found it if I hadn't given up looking."

"No." They looked at their respective gifts, and then slowly started to laugh.

"Happy Winter Festival, Po."

"Happy Winter Festival, Tigress."

**a time to keep **

He looked at the doll in his hands. People had urged him over the past eight years to throw it out, to forget about it.

But memories are things to keep, not just to toss off because they were painful. And he knew that if he threw the memories away, others would make the same mistakes that Shen had made, thirty years ago.

**and a time to throw away,**

She held the small stick figure in her hands. For years, this had been a reminder of her days before the orphanage, a hope that someday, her parents would come back.

She knew without a doubt that it was time to let go. Not to forget, no, but to move on.

She took a deep breath, smiled, and let go.

And, with that, she threw the small stick doll of the edge of the mountain.

**a time to tear **

He ripped the beautiful drapes off the walls, revealing the lost Battle Axe of Jiao Mountain. "YEAH!"

"Shh!" Viper hissed at the panda. "We can't get caught!"

"Oh. Yeah, right." He looked around, and then said, "Let's get out of here!"

**and a time to mend, **

"So, whatcha doin'?"

Tigress sighed. "I'm fixing my vest, Po. It tore in training today." She pushed the thread through the eye of the needle, one eye closed to see it better.

"Haha, I didn't know you knew how to sew!" he said, laughing. "I didn't think you could do anything as girly as that!"

She raised an eyebrow at him, and tugged at the underside of her spare vest, which she was wearing. Po saw another sewn-up seam, the color of the thread different from the rest. "It's not just for girls. It's a skill every warrior should learn, in case he has to repair his clothes when no seamstress stores are nearby." She bit her lip as she rolled the end-strings between her fingers, making the knot.

There was a moment of silence while she flipped the vest inside out, and then quickly began to repair the torn seam. Within a few minutes, the vest was as good as new.

"There," she said, satisfied.

"Hey, Tigress?" Po said, as she stood up off the stool.

"Yes?"

"Could you teach me that?"

She chuckled. "Me, teach the Dragon Warrior how to sew?"

He flushed red. "Yeah. I guess."

She smiled a little and sat back down. Pulling out the needle and thread again from her small box, she said, "So, you start by threading the needle through…"

**a time to be silent **

"Quiet, everyone." Viper whispered, as they looked at the wolf bandits coming up the road. They would have to be absolutely silent for their ambush to work.

**and a time to speak,**

"Hey!" Po yelled, stepping in between the children. "Knock it off!"

"He's right!" Tigress growled. "You stop hurting him."

The four pig kids looked up at them, frightened. "Yes, Dragon Warrior and Master Tigress," they said in unison, and then scampered off.

Both warriors knelt down beside the crying rabbit child. "Are you alright?" Tigress said, her voice unusually gentle.

The boy nodded. "Y-yes…" He looked at them. "Thank you. M-most people won't stop them… They think we're just playing, or that I n-need to toughen up."

"Who says that?" Po demanded.

"M-my uncle."

Tigress stood. "I don't think this uncle of yours quite understands what's going on," she said, and her voice was angry. "Those kids were bullying you, not playing."

"She's right," Po agreed. "Why were they hurting you?"

"B-because of my leg." He showed them his hind leg, which was bent at an odd angle. "It's been like that since I was born. I-I can't help it!"

"We know," said Tigress. "And we're going to put a stop to it." She picked the child up, holding him in her strong arms, and in that instant, Po saw that the three of them- panda, tiger, and rabbit- had all repeated that same phrase too many times before.

**a time to love **

A soft kiss pressed against his lips, and when Po opened his eyes, it was none other than Master Tigress herself, standing there in the warm, spring-night air, and smiling like she was the happiest woman on earth.

**and a time to hate,**

"I HATE YOU!" they screamed at each other, before both went storming off to their rooms.

They fumed all night long, pacing back and forth, replaying the conversation over and over in their heads, getting angrier as the night went on. And yet, by the time that morning came, both realized the error in their ways, and apologized.

It went unsaid, of course, but both knew in the back of their minds that these small arguments only made their relationship stronger.

**a time for war**

The clashing of swords and the haze of blood consumed the panda's senses as he fought with all his might, the Sword of Heroes bringing down foe after foe. He hated war, but he knew that it was the only way to save the innocents of the Valley, and so he would fight.

**and a time for peace.**

The soft, golden sun poured down upon the Valley that morning, as the husband held his wife and his wife their child. Green grass seemed to glow like emeralds under their feet, brilliant blue sky like sapphire above them, and the entire Valley felt the hard-earned peace settle over the land like a beautiful waking dream.

Tigress looked up at Po, and then they both looked down at the sleeping lion child in her arms. Everything was good.

**What gain has the worker from his toil?**

For their to be good, first one must feel the bad. For their to be harvest, first one must plant. For there to be true love, there must be tests for it to overcome. Yin cannot exist without her Yang, just as Yang cannot exist without his Yin. Love, and you shall be loved. Give, and you shall receive. Work to bring about your greatness, so that the worker might gain from his toil.

_Fin_


	34. Chapter 34 Torture  WARNING! BLOOD!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda or How To Train Your Dragon. I make no money off of this.

**A/N:** **This is a request from ****The StarsShadow 15.**

_******WARNING: If you're squeamish and can't stand reading about blood or mentions of torture, DO NOT read this chapter!******_

It killed him to see her like this.

Maybe, it wouldn't have been so bad, if he hadn't been the first one to see her. Maybe, he wouldn't have been so scared by the fact that here she was, his hero, beaten to a bloody pulp, if he hadn't been the first to feel the dried blood on her fur. Maybe he could've stopped it, if _he'd _just volunteered to be the spy, if _he'd _ gone into the compound to get the lay of the land. Maybe- maybe-

So many maybes.

"Will she be okay?" he'd asked, when the doctor had come out of her room that first time. When the duck hesitated, he'd brushed past the man, bursting into the room.

Shallow breaths had filled the otherwise still air, and the room felt cold. Empty. As if her spirit had already left her body.

"She's close to death," the duck had said, following him inside.

"No," the panda had replied, breathing as quickly as she. "No."

"Dragon Warrior," he'd said, patting his back with his feathers. "I don't want to give you false hope. Master Tigress' chances are slim."

Po had turned to him, saying "No way. You don't know her like I do; she'll pull through this. Trust me."

Now, as he sat by her bedside, keeping watch as she slept, he wondered if he'd told the truth.

He looked down at her paws, which were lying on either side of her on the red blanket. One hand had been wrapped in gauze, but had been so badly injured, rusty-red bloodstains had seeped through in places. On the other, he could see burn marks, no bigger than his pointer finger- or a fire poker.

He reached out with his own paws, brushing the white fringe of fur on her face. "Tigress…" he whispered. "Why'd you have to go in there, huh? Why couldn't you have let one of us do it instead? You knew you'd probably be caught." He gulped. "Tortured."

"Because… I couldn't let… anyone else be hurt," she mumbled back.

He jumped, startled. "Tigress?"

Her eyes- both blackened by numerous shiners- flickered open slightly, blearily. "So," she whispered, her voice hoarse. Po could've guessed it was from screaming. "What did the doctor say… my chances are?"

"Not good," he admitted.

"Mm. Figures." She closed her eyes again. "How long was I out?"

"From when we rescued you? Two days."

"Estimated recovery time?"

He winced. "Um… for what parts of you?"

She opened her eyes. "Bones first."

"At longest, five months."

"Internal organs?"

"They're pretty okay. But your heartbeat was really off two days ago; that's what had them worried the most."

She gave him a grim smirk, which made her lips crack and bleed again. "Psychological damage?"

He full on cringed this time. "That's the tough one."

She nodded, then closed her eyes. After a moment, she winced and opened them again. "The mind is always the last thing to heal," she said quietly, more to herself than to him.

He reached out, took her less-injured paw in his. Then, he bit his lip.

"Po? Are you alright?"

"Me? Tigress, you're the one that's hurt." But he couldn't help it; a tear had slipped out of his eyes and onto his white-furred cheeks.

She gently removed her paw from his grasp and reached up, brushing away the tears. "Now, don't you cry over me," she said sternly. "You know my pride can't take it." When he didn't answer, she said, worried, "Po?"

That was when he completely lost it. "For once, would you stop worrying about me and start thinking about yourself?" he demanded, tears spilling down his face. "Tigress, they _tortured _you! They almost killed you! I- I thought-" He broke off.

"You thought… what?" She forced him to meet her eyes. Her scarlet gaze drilled into his, demanding an answer.

He swallowed. "I thought I was going to lose you." He leaned down and hugged her.

She gave just the slightest ghost of a smile, and then winced. "Mph. Po, that arm's broken."

"Oh. Sorry." He whipped his eyes and said, "And sorry again, I- I shouldn't be so-"

"Don't start apologizing for your emotions; that's my job, remember?"

He laughed just a little at this, though it sounded more like a choke through his tears. "How do you do it?" he asked. "You're so brave, all the time…"

She shook her head. "No. I'm not all that brave."

"What are you talking about? You're like the bravest person I-" He realized that she'd grabbed his paw again, and was gripping it very, very tightly. Her mouth was clenched, and Po realized that she was reliving one of the many memories of the three days during which she'd been in captivity.

When her grasp on his hand subsided and her neck didn't look like it had iron cords running under her skin, he said softly, "Really bad, huh?"

"Worse than you can imagine." She shuddered slightly, and then switched to a new topic, as if she wanted nothing more than to forget the last week. "So. Who's got next shift?"

"What?"

"Who's got next shift?" she repeated. "Obviously you're here now, but who's taking the next watch?"

"Oh. Um, me, I guess."

"You're taking double shifts?" she said, surprised.

He went a little red. "No. We're not taking shifts; I said I'd stay with you until you woke up."

"You mean, you've been here the entire time?"

He nodded.

"Didn't you sleep? How did you eat?"

"The others brought me food, but I didn't sleep much at all. I was too worried."

"Why did you stay?" she said, confused. "You said it was two days."

"I wanted to be here if, you know," he swallowed, "You passed on. I don't think I could've taken it, hearing it from one of the others."

"I see…" She paused, and then said. "Thank you."

He nodded again, unable to speak.

There was a long silence, and then Tigress realized that Po was close to tears again. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Tigress, don't you _ever_ scare me like that again, alright?" he said seriously.

She gave him a grim smile. "I don't think I can promise you that."

"At least say you'll try to stay out of danger."

"Po. We're Kung Fu warriors. It's an occupational hazard." **(A/N: Somewhere, Hiccup starts looking for lawsuit papers).**

He looked away. "Tigress… I don't know how to tell you this, but I really care for you. Like, different than I care for the others." He hesitated, and then said, "Tigress, I-"

"I'm going to save you the trouble of telling me how you feel," Tigress said, cutting him off, "Because I already know."

He stared at her. "You know?"

"The action figures were a bit of a tip-off."

"Oh, yeah," he said. "Remind me to have a talk with dad about privacy later."

She chuckled, and then winced. "Mm. My throat's still sore."

"I'll bet." He was quiet for a moment, and then said, "Listen, I'm sorry about that. I didn't want to give you anything else to worry about, but-"

"It's not a worry to me, Po." She paused, and then said, "When they were- well, when I was in the compound, I thought I was going to die."

He cringed. "Tigress… I'm sor-"

"I thought I was going to die," she interrupted, "without ever telling you how I felt." His mouth fell open, and she smirked slightly. "It wasn't a great feeling."

"Yeah, no kidding."

"I'm not wasting any more time being a coward about it and not telling you. If there's one thing this entire… event… made me realize, it's that I never know how much I have left." She seemed to struggle with herself for a moment, and then said, "I was close to breaking, many times. So close. There were times that I- I would've spilled every secret, anything, just to get the pain to stop…" Her voice broke and trailed off, then came back stronger. "But there was one thing that pulled me back from the edge of telling every time: the thought that, if I said anything, they would come here and hurt you and the others." She looked him dead in the eyes. "That was what let me hold on as long as I did. But believe me, if you'd been any later in the rescue… I would've sung like a lark." Her gaze left his, ashamed. "I'm- I'm sorry."

"Tigress, you- you're the last one that needs to be sorry here!" he said. "I mean, anyone would've broken under that kind of pressure, but you held on way longer than I ever could've! And Tigress, if you hadn't, we never would've completed the mission."

She blinked. "You mean-"

"We rescued their prisoners and defeated the leader. They were so concerned with making you talk that they got shaky on their defense."

The feline let just a ghost of a sigh escape her mouth. "Ahh… Thank the gods."

"So you see? You've got nothing to be sorry for."

She smiled, just barely. "Thanks. I needed to hear that."

There was another long pause, but not an uncomfortable one. Then, Po said, "Hey, Tigress? Do you think, well, do you think you're going to be okay?"

She sighed. "If you're talking physically, then yes. I don't care what the doctor says my chances are, I'm not going to die after surviving _that._ But mentally…" She grimaced. "It might be a long time before I'm 'okay' again."

"Well, you'd better get well soon, because I can't take you on a date until you can walk again," he joked. Then, worried, he said, "I mean, if you want to go out with me. You don't have to, I-"

"Po," she cut him off, before he could embarrass himself anymore. "I would love to go on a date with you, once my legs are back in working order."

Po nodded, squeezed her paw, and then said, "I guess I should go tell the other's you're awake."

"Alright."

He stood up and began to walk towards the door. Suddenly, from behind him, he heard her say, "Wait."

He turned back around, surprised. "Yeah?"

Tigress looked away. "Never mind; it's nothing."

Po realized that she was embarrassed by her unintended show of weakness. "You know," he said, knowing he had to protect her pride, "I think the others are training. I don't want to interrupt them, so would you mind if I just stayed here for a while?"

He saw relief flash across her face, and then it was gone again, covered by her usual hard-core attitude. "I don't mind. You can stay if you want."

"Thanks." He walked back over to the stool and sat down.

Tigress closed her eyes, muttering something about 'should get some rest,' and slowly drifted off. Po watched as her breathing settled and slowed. He hesitated a moment, and then, very quietly, leaned down and kissed her softly on the forehead.

As he pulled away, Tigress' lips twitched ever so slightly, and she murmured, "Thank you, Po."

With that, the feline slipped off into dreamland. Po settled back against the wall on his stool. He didn't want to leave her quite yet; in fact, he was more than happy to wait for her to wake once more.


	35. Chapter 35 That's What She Said

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

**A/N: WARNING! If you aren't old enough to read 'that's what she said' jokes, then don't read this!**

"Come on, Po, this isn't that hard."

"Easy for you to say," the panda grumbled. "You don't weigh 260 pounds."

All six of them were doing Tai Chi in the courtyard. Or trying to, anyway. The Five were getting it just fine, but Po was having some trouble. Tigress, surprisingly, had quit with her own Tai Chin in an attempt to teach him the basics. The others, of course, had stopped to watch."

"It's all about balance," she said encouragingly. "Find your _hara_."

"My what?"

"Center of balance. It's the point where your body is completely stable."

"Okay…" He paused, stuck his tongue out slightly as he concentrated, and finally found it, standing on one foot. "Now what?"

"Tai Chi is a pattern." She put herself into the same position as him, and then went from there. "Go in and out, in and out-"

"That's what she said," Mantis snickered to Monkey, thinking Tigress wouldn't hear him.

Tigress' eyes went wide, and she put her foot down, whirling around. "Excuse me?" she snapped.

The bug shrank back. "Um, nothing!"

"No, I distinctly heard you say 'that's what she said.'" She put her hands on her hips, raising an eyebrow. Somehow this position seemed more intimidating than when she had her claws unsheathed in a battle. "My question is," she continued, "How would you know that? You're a virgin."  
>Everyone went "Ohhhh!" and burst out laughing. Mantis went bright red, even through his green exoskeleton. "So are you!" he snapped.<p>

Tigress smirked, knowing she had him. "Yes, but _I'm_ proud of it. It _bothers_ you."

"It- it does not!"

By now, everyone was howling with laughter. "You're a really, really bad liar, Mantis," Viper giggled, though she was at least trying to hold in her laughter.

"Shut up! It's not like any of you have any experience either!" the insect said, furious.

"Yeah, but like Tigress, said, _you're _the only one that gets _bugged_ by it!" Monkey said, laughing at his own bad pun.

Mantis scowled. "I'm done with this Tai Chi stuff!" He huffed and turned around, about to hop away, only to run straight into Master Shifu, who had somehow mysteriously appeared out of thin air. Everyone shut up instantly.

"What's this all about?" he said calmly.

Nobody answered.

"Well?"

"Um… see, Tigress was trying to teach Po some Tai Chi, and then Mantis made a 'that's what she said' joke, and… yeah," Crane said finally.

"I see." He looked around at all of them for a moment, and then said, "Carry on with your training."

Everyone let out the tiniest sighs of relief that they weren't going to get in trouble, and went back to doing the Tai Chi kata.

"So, panda," Shifu said, walking over to Po. "What seems to be the trouble?"

"I can't really do it the right way. I mean, I try to copy what Tigress is telling me to do, but I always end up with my feet in the wrong place."

"Let me see." Po tried to do the technique he was stuck on again, and Shifu nodded. "It's your position; try it again, and go the other way."

"That's what she said," Mantis said, before he could stop himself.

Shifu paused for a moment, and then turned around. Mantis gulped; the grandmaster seemed extremely tranquil, and that was when he was always the most angry.

"Um… should I run?" the insect asked.

"I'd strongly suggest it," Shifu said calmly.

Mantis took off down the stairs as fast as his little legs could carry him.


	36. Chapter 36 Baby Blues 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

**A/N: Okay, so I know that this TECHNICALLY can't happen, which is why I'm putting this under the one-shot story thing instead of starting a whole new story. I hope you like it!**

"Man, I am the luckiest guy in the world," Po said happily to the other three men, as he walked towards the training hall one sunny spring morning.

"Yeah, no kidding," Mantis agreed. "You're the Dragon Warrior, you live in the Jade Palace, and Master Shifu technically can't kill you because he'd be killing his son-in-law."

"You forgot that I've got the best wife in the entire universe," Po added.

"And don't you forget it," said Tigress with a smirk, as she and Viper up behind him. "By the way, do any of you know where Master Shifu is? I've got some training questions to go over with him."

"Like what, how long it is until you can learn to float while meditating?" Monkey snickered.

Tigress cat-batted him in the head. "Don't be an imbecile."

"Po, she's being mean to me!" Monkey fake-whined.

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"Make her stop!"

Po gave him a look. "Have you ever tried to make Tigress stop doing _anything_? It's harder than it looks."

"If you're all done discussing my stubbornness," the feline interjected, annoyed, "Could someone please tell me where Master is?"

"Yeah, I think he's back in the barracks, getting some food," Crane answered. "He wasn't there for breakfast, remember?"

"Alright, thanks. I'll see you all in a few minutes." She turned around and went back the other way.

They all continued on their way to the training hall, laughing at one of Mantis' slightly inappropriate jokes, before Po said suddenly, "Oh, dang it!"

"What's wrong?" said Viper, surprised.

"We're not training today, remember? We're studying history and stuff!"

"So? All the scrolls are already in there," Crane said.

"Um… not all of them…"

Monkey sighed. "You took one out, didn't you?"

"Maaaaybe…" He winced. "I'll be right back." He hurried off back to the barracks.

He snuck in quietly, not wanting Shifu to know he was there. He crept past the kitchen, trying not to make any noise and listening to see if they'd noticed him.

"-I can't tell him yet, Po would freak out-"

He stopped upon hearing his name. Frowning, he listened closer.

"The Dragon Warrior has attained Inner Peace," said Shifu from behind the closed door.

"The _Dragon Warrior_ has never had to handle this sort of responsibility!" Tigress snapped.

"You speak as if you have!"

"Master, even raised as a Kung Fu master, I knew that this was an option! A miniscule option, yes, but still a potential part of my future. Po has likely never even _thought_ that this would happen to him!"

"You mean that the two of you haven't discussed it?" the red panda, said, surprised.

"Well… perhaps a little… but we certainly never expected it to come around like this!" He heard a creak as she leaned back against the table. "Master, I didn't even think this was physically possible… it just doesn't make sense."

"Not normally, no. But considering how much fate has had a hand in our lives within the last few years… to be frank, I think the gods have gone on something of a interference spree."

"You're telling me," Tigress said, sighing. "Master, how in the name of all the gods am I going to tell Po that I'm pregnant?"

Po stumbled back from the door, sure he'd misunderstood. The world around him began to spin, and then grew blurry as it tipped on its side, his head hitting the ground with a loud CRACK!

**KFP**

When he finally woke up again, he found himself sitting in bed, with the other five and Master Shifu all crowded around him worriedly.

"What happened?" he mumbled. "How did I get here?"

"You fainted," Tigress said, matter-of-factly. "Master Shifu and I found you outside the kitchen."

"Hey, buddy, you alright?" Mantis said.

"Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm fine," Po said, feeling himself grow more and more dazed as the memories came flooding back in. "Um, Tigress, can I talk to you outside, please?"

"You shouldn't be mov-" she started, but the look in his eyes cut her off. "I suppose," she said grudgingly.

They other five watched as he left, and Master Shifu said, "I don't think she's going to break it to him easy."

"Break what to him easy?" Viper asked.

He gestured to the window. "Just watch."

When Po and Tigress stopped out front of the barracks, there was a moment of silence, before she said, "You heard, didn't you?"

He nodded, still stunned. "Are you really…" He reached down and put a hand on her belly.

She nodded. "I...I felt him kick. Or her. And I've been so nauseous lately, and all the weird cravings…"

"Oh man," Po said, shocked.

"Are you going to faint again?"

"No. No. But-" Suddenly, he pulled her into a tight embrace. "Oh man," he whispered again. "A baby. A real, living baby…" He pulled back, and looked desperately at the smartest woman he knew, seeking answers. "Tigress, what are we gonna do?"

The feline looked back at him with wide, _scared _eyes, and whispered the exact three words that he didn't want to hear: "I don't know."

**A/N: There will probably be more to come, so don't worry! This story is dedicated to Mo (That's alicehatter239 for those of you who don't know), and CKDrake (Or Konoharik, I guess… That's probably spelled wrong, isn't it, CKD? Sorry).**


	37. Chapter 37 Magnanimity

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

**A/N: This story's inspiration came from Graystripe64. The credit for this goes entirely to them!**

**Also, we have a new author here on the site that I'd like to recommend: Bothsidesofthecoin00100 will have his/her first works out soon (be warned, however: they will be mature-themed). **

When he found her, she was sitting alone, crying under the peach tree that he himself had planted so long ago.

Walking up to the cub, the tortoise said, "Child, why are you crying?"

She looked up, surprised. "M-Master Oogway!" she stuttered. She'd only ever seen the elderly master once or twice. Usually, she was kept 'out from underfoot' of the old sage, instead spending most of her time in the training hall. "I-I'm so sorry, Master, I didn't know you would be here. I-I'll leave right away!" She was about to get to her feet, her face flushed red with embarrassment at having the grandmaster see her cry, but then she felt a scaled claw settle on her shoulder, gently pushing her back down.

"No need to hurry off so fast, dear one," Oogway said softly. "After all, you haven't answered my question. Why are you crying?"

Tigress looked away. "I-It's nothing. Really."

He chuckled slightly. "Well, I'm sure its not 'nothing.' After all, I've never seen anyone cry over 'nothing.'"

She bit her lip, and then said dismissively, "I went down to the village market today for more vegetables, that's all."

Oogway nodded. "And the carrots made you cry, did they?"

"No," she admitted. "When- when I was down there, I saw these kids. They were picking on a panda- he looked about my age- so I told them to leave him alone."

"And did they?"

"Well… yes. But then, they started to make fun of me." She sniffled. "They… they called me a- a-" She burst into tears again, sobs wracking her body.

"Oh, child," Oogway said sadly. He pulled her into an embrace, surprisingly strong for his age. When the tears had finally subsided, he said gently, "What did they say, little one?"

"Th-they called me an 'Hideous, ugly monster that no one would ever love.'"

The brutal words stabbed the tortoise's heart. With a sigh, he said, "It seems that doing a good act will often only bring misfortune to oneself."

"M-Master Oogway," Tigress whispered, "Why… why am I so ugly?"

"Child, you aren't ugly. No one is."

"But I am!" she said stubbornly. "I look exactly like those monsters in the stories!"

"What do you mean?"

"W-well… They always talk about claws, and fangs, and strength, and…" She trailed off and mumbled something he couldn't hear.

"What did you say?"

"My eyes," she mumbled. "My red eyes. Every monster… has red eyes. Like demons."

"Now, who told you that?" Oogway said, surprised.

"The kids in the village. They said I've got demon eyes, and that it's proof I'm a monster." She narrowed said eyes in pain, looking away.

He frowned slightly. "Now, you listen to me," he said, his tone just slightly sterner. She looked up, curious despite her tears. "I've met a demon, and-" Here, he looked around, as if making sure he wasn't being listened to, "-and if there's one thing I remember, it's that he didn't have any eyes."

Her own eyes went very wide. "Truth?"

He nodded, very serious. "Truth."

"Wow," she said, stunned.

"So you see? Those children were simply trying to make you upset." He pulled her closer, setting her on his lap. "And if you need any more proof that you are not a monster, then look at this: what had you done to make them say such?"

She blinked. "I was trying to make them leave the panda alone."

"And there you are. No monster has a heart as great as yours; I have not even met many people that do."

"But I'm still ugly," she said sadly.

"And why do you think that?"

She looked away, ashamed. "Because I'm not normal," she whispered.

"Hm. Normal is overrated. I'm not normal, now am I?"

She shook her head. "But people _like_ normal, Master Oogway."

"Who?"

She looked down at the ground. "Boys," she mumbled. "They like normal, pretty girls. The girls with big eyes and nice faces and cute little laughs, like Viper."

"Ahh…" Oogway said. "I see." He thought for a moment, and then said, "Tigress, do you like fruit?"

She blinked. "Huh?"

"Do you like fruit?" he said again.

"I- I guess."

"What kinds?"

She looked at him strangely, and then said, "I don't know. Oranges, peaches, plums…"

"Which is better, a peach or a plum?"

She frowned. "Well, neither, of course! I mean, they're not even the same kind of fruit."

"And yet you are trying to compare them." She blinked again, and he smiled. "You, dear Tigress, are like a peach, and Viper is a plum. You can't say which is better, because they are not the same, nor are the two of you. Both of you are equally beautiful, but neither of you hold the same kind of beauty as the other. Does this make sense?"

"I- I guess so…" she said slowly. "But then why do all the boys like her better than me?"

"As for that, all I can say is that perhaps they have always eaten plums, and are too scared to try a peach. And besides," here, his eyes twinkled, "I would be willing to guess that the panda boy you stood up for today thought you were absolutely stunning."

"Really?" she said, surprised.

"Really. What you did in defending that panda was honorable, magnanimous, even."

"Magnanimous," she said, rolling the word around in her mouth.

He nodded. "Perhaps that that panda boy you helped will grow to be someone special because of what you did today. And," he took her by the chin and raised her head to meet his eyes, "I can promise you that he'll remember you today as someone beautiful."

She smiled a little, wiped her eyes. "Thank you, Master Oogway," she said softly.

"You're very welcome. Now, how about we both go back to the kitchen, and I'll make us some tea. Does that sound good?"

"Yes, please." They both stood up, master and student.

Together, they began to walk towards the kitchen, even as miles below, a young panda boy told his goose father about the 'totally gorgeous and awesome Kung-Fu girl' who had been his hero, and would be from that day on.

"…_[Magnanimity] is the virtue by which man strives for what is great and honorable in his life, even if it is difficult." – Pope John Paul II_


	38. Chapter 38 Failure

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

_ Failure._

It was a word not many would think to associate with her. Yet, it was a word that Master Tigress knew intimately.

_Apologize _was another one. Oh, yes, _failure_ and _apologize_ always walked hand in hand for her. There was always some part of her that wasn't meeting expectations, and there was always an apology to be made, whether in words or in the language that needed no words to be explained.

One's face often told a story more fully than his mouth.

As she sat on her bed in the dark, pondering these two words, hundreds of others surrounded them in what seemed like bitter, black poetry in her mind.

Master Tigress was a brilliant woman with a talent for being sarcastic and the ability to remember events precisely as they happened. But this was a double-edged sword: her mind would mock her on a day-to-day basis, replaying her latest shortcoming with a stark sharpness that never let her forget the past. There were times when she wished for the dimness of old age, which would allow her to forget all her mistakes in something of a hazy remembrance that would fade as quickly as it came.

But, for now, her latest disappointment was fresh and painful in her mind, attacking her like an enemy she couldn't fight off, no matter how hard she tried.

It was her biggest failure yet, one that manifested herself in her memory as what should've been one of the proudest moments of her life, the instant when every wrong would be righted and every instance of inadequacy erased. It was her moment of triumph, when she would finally look in her master's eyes and see his pride for her. It was a day she had long envisioned; a glorious, golden moment where for once, _for once_ she would be more than just a distraction, a replacement, a second Tai Lung. It was _perfect._

And then, it all came tumbling down, just like the stupid, fat _panda_ that had taken the one moment she had to actually be herself. To be a tiger instead of a snow leopard, to be herself instead of a pushed-off memory. To be _Tigress._

Ironic, wasn't it?

Suddenly, she heard a door nearby close, and creaking steps walk along the floorboards..

No way. No possible way. The gods simply could not hate her that much.

But they did. That _panda,_ that horrible joke of a Dragon Warrior, that stupid, fat oaf that stole her one and only chance, was here, no doubt wanting to mock her failure, just as the gods and the other four, she was sure, were doing behind her back.

Anger and hate rose in her chest, boiling and seething and building up like a huge, roaring fire that grew with every moment. It burned in the pit of her stomach and spread into her chest, wild, irrational. She knew she wasn't making sense, that anger was clouding her usual logical mind, but she'd had a long, bad day, and if the cause for her anger, her fury, her _failure,_ thought that he could just waltz right through without getting a piece of her mind, then let her soul be damned straight to hell, because there was no way on earth she was going to let that son of a bitch walk around here like a king.

She got up and made it to the door with one single stride, opening it with more force than probably necessary.

"Master Tigress!" the panda said, surprised (or pretending to be, anyway). "I didn't mean to wake you, just, uh-"

"You don't belong here," she said, her voice filled with cold fury.

"Yeah, yeah, of course, this is your room-"

"I mean," she interrupted, "You don't belong in the Jade Palace. You're a disgrace to Kung Fu, and if you have any respect for who we are and what we do, _you_ will be gone by morning." And with that, she shut the doors.

She let out just a bitter ghost of a smirk in satisfaction, knowing that the stunned panda was standing on the other side of the door, whatever high-and-lofty speech he had planned to use to make her feel like crap wiped from his mind.

Then, she heard him say in a weak, trying-to-stay-upbeat sort of voice, "Big fan."

Tigress felt her blood run cold. _What?_

It took her almost a full minute to get it through her head. The panda had said he was a fan. A fan. Not coming to mock her, but probably just trying to get to his room for the night. He was just a nice guy with bad luck, who'd probably had no intention of smashing her hopes and dreams into tiny little pieces.

She opened the door again, not sure what she would say, but knowing that one way or another, she had to make amends.

But… it was too late. The hallway was empty.

The panda had gone.

He'd probably already left, not even bothering to take the night to get out of the Palace. She wasn't going to go after him- she had no right, after the way she'd treated him- and she'd probably never see him again, much less have the chance to explain her actions.

Slowly, she closed the door again, and walked back to sit on her bed. She brushed over the rough red fabric with the pads of her paw. Then, suddenly, she felt tears begin to push at the back of her eyes.

"Dammit," she muttered. "Now I'm going to cry? Terrific. This day just keeps getting better and better." But even her self-mocking sarcasm couldn't hide the truth of the matter: she'd acted like a horrible bitch to the one person that was actually, amazingly, shockingly…

Proud of her.

She closed her eyes in self-loathing and buried her head in her hands. A solitary tear escaped her eyes and paws, landing on the wooden floorboards beneath her. How could she have been so heartless?

One more failure to add to the list.


	39. Chapter 39 Falling for You

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

**I would like to fully recommend whattheycallgifted's story, Survival of the Fittest. In case you haven't read it, IT'S AWESOME!**

When it came to love, Tigress was a failure.

It was, she was sure, from the lack of practice. Having only had a few boyfriends over the many years, all of them in relationships that lasted no more than two weeks (if she was lucky), she was fairly sure that she was less than brilliant in the romance department.

As a strong, literate, and unmarried woman, at the age of twenty-six, she was considered an 'old maid.' Even Viper wasn't referred to as such, what with her romantic success with a certain insect, but Tigress had happened to be cursed with good hearing since birth, and was therefore subject to the whispers that followed her down the streets and tested her temper every time she stepped foot in the village.

Occasionally, when Viper would ask her why she didn't have a boyfriend, Tigress would roll her eyes and say she didn't want to upset her chi. This, of course, had nothing to do with it. The fact of the matter was, Tigress had the unfortunate habit of falling for a man, as she called it, 'head over heart,' instead of head over heels. Simply put, this meant she would start to like someone in her mind before her heart actually jumped on board. Unfortunately, this meant that often times either a) she would lose interest in said man rather quickly, or b) he would already be with someone else. In the first case, it didn't bother her much, but in the second, it had many a time left her hiding a broken heart, and after too many instances of this, she'd given up the idea of love altogether, claiming it non-existent and certainly not for her.

It was for this very reason that when she found herself beginning to like Po, she had no clue what was happening, and didn't even recognize love for what it was until she had fallen for the panda harder than a victim of Monkey's banana peels.

"So, what is it exactly that you like in him?"

The feline groaned. She'd known that telling Viper would prompt these sorts of questions, but in her defense, she'd had nowhere else to turn. "That's none of your business!"

"Of course it's my business. After all, you came to me for help about this, and I can't help if I don't know what you see in him."

Scowling, Tigress said, "Alright…" She hesitated a moment, and then said, all in a rush (as if wanting to get it over with), "He's cute, funny, smarter than he looks, he loves Kung Fu, he's a great cook, his eyes are grass-green, I smile like an brainless idiot whenever I'm around him, he's the nicest man I've ever met-"

"Alright, alright!" Viper said, laughing. "Jeez, Tigress, you've got it bad."

"I do not!" she snapped.

"Yes, you do," the snake admonished. "So what happens when you're around him? Do you start giggling or-"

"No, I don't start giggling!" Tigress said defensively. Then, her tone lowered. "But… I do laugh a lot. And… I don't know, I just don't act like myself."

"You mean, you don't act like an ice queen," Viper corrected.

"Whatever you want to call it!" She growled, and then said, "See? I said 'whatever.' I never say whatever!" She scowled. "I'm not acting like I usually do; it's like I'm someone else completely when I'm around him!" Her eyes widened, and she said franticly, "Oh gods, I've finally gone psychotic, haven't I?"

"No, you haven't gone psychotic!" Viper said, sighing with annoyance. "Tigress, listen to me:" (and this part, she said very, very slowly) "This is all perfectly normal. You're not insane, you're not sick, and you're not dreaming. Face facts: you're in love with Po."

"I- I am _not!_" the tiger master snapped. "There's a big difference between being in love and having a small- no, miniscule crush on someone!"

Viper gave her a dubious look. "What color are his eyes again?"

"Grass green, except for when he's upset. Then they're a lot darker," Tigress answered instantly. Then her eyes went wide. "Gods help me."

"You don't need the gods, you just need Po," Viper said reasonably. "Now, since we know he likes you, and you like him, all we need to do is get him to ask you out."

"And how do you suggest I do that?" she demanded.

"Easy. You tell him you like him."

The feline's eyes went even wider, and she shook her head vehemently. "No. Not in a million years."

"Why not?" There was silence for a moment, and then Viper said, "Oh, _I _get!" She prodded the tiger with her tail. "You're scared, aren't you?"

Tigress went red, and she looked away.

"I don't believe this! You'll beat up any bandit, taunt a guy that has you in chains, and take a blast from a cannon, but you can't tell a guy that you _know_ likes you that you have feelings for him?"

"I never said that I was being logical about this!" she snapped.

"I'll say. Listen, if there was a guy I knew liked me, and I liked him back, I'd tell him!"

"Easy for you to say," she retorted. "Mantis asked _you_, not the other way around!"

Viper sighed. "Well, if you're too chicken to tell him yourself, you're just going to have to flirt with him to give him the right idea."

Tigress' mouth went dry. "What?" she croaked.

"Hey, it's either that or tell him outright."

"I'll do it," she said instantly.

"You'll do what?"

She ground her teeth. "I'll… flirt… with Po."

Viper grinned evilly. "Good. This is what we'll do…"

**Next Day**

"Tigress, Po, you're up next," Shifu said, as Mantis and Monkey bowed and stepped off the Jade Tortoise, which was where they'd been sparing.

"Which part of the obstacle course are we on?" Po asked the red panda.

"Hm… I think we ought to keep you on solid ground for now," Shifu said reasonably. "Over to the side, both of you."

As Tigress walked past Viper, the snake whispered, "Knock him dead. Not really, but you know what I mean."

"Right," the feline whispered back. What she was really thinking, though, was _How am I supposed to spar with him _and _flirt with him at the same time?_

She and Po both stepped onto a section of the floor with a bamboo lattice-work matt underneath them, which had been put there specifically for Po's training (he was still not exactly ready for the obstacle course, and they'd decided that the only way to keep from sending him back to 'level zero' was to keep him on things he could handle without dying). Both of them bowed.

"And… begin."

They raised their hands, and as usual, Po shot her his usual geeky grin. Most of the time, she would give him a reproving, _pay attention!_ sort of look, but today, she smirked back and, just for good measure, winked.

Po blinked, and that was when she hit him.

The spar was over within two minutes; by the time she was done, she had him pinned under her. Yet, strangely, it wasn't her usual way of pinning him (aka, his stomach to the ground and most of his limbs in a painful sort of lock). This time, she'd slammed him back first into the ground and was keeping him there with one knee on his solar plexus, bracing with the other leg, and had his hands pinned to the ground above his head. Her face was not three decameters from his.

"Alright, enough," Shifu said, after a few moments during which Po tried to struggle away and Tigress held him in place. At the order, she nodded and got off of him.

"Ohh…" Po mumbled, rubbing his stomach as if it was in a lot of pain. "That hurt…"

She offered him a paw and helped him up. "Thanks," he said. She nodded.

"Crane and Viper, your turn," Shifu said. The two nodded and flew/slithered over to find out what part of the course they were on.

As they walked back to the waiting area, Tigress said quietly (so her master wouldn't hear), "Good job."

"Yeah, right," he said, laughing. "You had me pinned in like a minute there."

"Yes, but you seemed a little…" Here, she let just a hint of a smirk tug at her lips, "Distracted."

He felt his mouth go dry, looking into those ruby-red eyes. He'd never seen them so mischievous before. "Um… yeah."

"Well, I'll talk to you later, Po." She smiled, winked again, and walked away, going to get a better spot to see the spar.

As he watched her leave, Po turned to Mantis and Monkey, who were standing beside him. Both of their mouths were hanging open. "Did you guys just see…" He trailed off, unable to finish.

They both nodded, and the three of them just stood there, shocked and unable to do anything but stare.

**That Night**

The kitchen was warm and full of laughter that night, as Po passed out the bowls of noodle soup. As Mantis joked about the face Master Shifu had made earlier that day during his and Monkey's spar (the red panda wasn't in the room), Po took the last seat available, one between Viper and Tigress.

He picked up his chopsticks and took some noodles out of the soup, blowing on them to cool them off. Just as he put the food in his mouth, he felt something furry but strong curl around his leg.

Po almost choked. He managed to swallow his food and looked over at Tigress, wide-eyed. The feline didn't so much as glance at him, and yet he could still feel her tail around his calf.

Trying very, very hard not to blush, he coughed slightly. She glanced at him. "Po? Are you feeling alright?" She said so with the most innocent of tones, but he could see that confident glint in her eyes that said otherwise.

"Uh, no, actually. I'm kind of confused about training today. You know that move that Master Shifu was trying to show us?"

"The spinning kick?"

"Yeah, that. Can I talk to you about that? Outside? Where we'll have more room?"

She nodded and turned to the others. "We'll be back." Her tail vanished from his leg, and they both stood up, walking out of the kitchen.

Once they were outside, Po said, "Alright, what's up?"

"What's up with what?"

"Come on, Tigress, don't play dumb. You've been acting really weird all day. Did someone spike your breakfast with catnip or something?"

She sighed. "You want the truth?"

"Um, yeah, kind of!"

She bit her lip, hesitated. That was when Po realized that something was wrong. "Hey, are you alright?" he said, worried.

"No, I'm not alright!" she snapped. "I've finally gone insane!"

"What? That doesn't even make sense!"

"I'm psychotic! I've gone off the deep end! I've officially lost my mind, and it's _all your fault!_" She prodded him in the chest with each word.

"Me? What do I have to do with this?"

"Oh, for the love of the gods!" she muttered, grabbed him by the shoulders, and kissed him.

When she finally pulled away, looking anywhere but at him, his mouth was wide open, as well as his eyes.

She glanced at him and, seeing his face, said, "Po? Are you alright?"

He didn't say anything, or even move. He just stood there with that same shocked expression on his face.

"Po?"

Nothing.

"Dammit," she muttered. "Not only have I kissed him, I've also sent him into a coma. Real suave there, Tigress."

Po blinked slightly as his brain slowly kicked back into gear. "Uh…" He mumbled, and then, as if the light bulb had suddenly gone on, he stumbled back, tripped over his own feet, and hit the ground with a loud THUD!

The feline sighed. "Alright, get up," she said, annoyed, and yanked him to his feet.

"Th-thanks," he stuttered, once back on his feet. Then, "Oh my gods. _Oh my gods!_"

"Breath, or you're going to pass out again," she said, very matter-of-factly.

"Right." He sucked in a few deep breaths, and then said, "Okay… so… am I dreaming?"

"No."

"Am I sick?"

"No."

"Am I totally nuts?"

"Yes, but that's irrelevant."

"So…" he said, still struggling to accept reality. "If' I'm not dreaming, sick, or crazy, that means that you really did kiss me."

She nodded.

"And if you really did kiss me, and you really have been flirting with me all day, and I'm not totally out of it, then…"

"Then…" she prodded.

"I can't say it. You'll murder me."

She growled, through with all the awkward draw-out. "Oh for the love of all that is good and sane in this world, panda, I like you! Can that through your mind, or do I have to pound it into you myself?"

"I get it, I get it!" he yelped. "I'm just… wow. I mean, I can't believe that out of every guy in China, you would actually choose, well, _me_."

"I didn't exactly choose it," she admitted. "It sort of… happened. I didn't even realize what was happening until yesterday…" She sighed and sat down on the wooden doorstep. "You have to understand; this isn't like me at all," she said. "I'm not behaving like I usually would; I'm not following the rules, I'm throwing caution to the winds, and I'm _certainly_ not acting logically-"

"Hey, take it from the guy that never acts logically," Po said, sitting down beside her, "Being 'reasonable' or whatever is sort of overrated."

She chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind." Then, her smile faded. "But I don't see how this would even work between us…"

"Why?"

"Well, not counting the fact that we're polar opposites and if there was a contest for stupidest argument, we'd have one it a few times over… Having a, well, a relationship would be highly inefficient, especially in battle."

He frowned, confused. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, if this- this-" She growled, frustrated. "If this friendship really is something more, and it grows, it could highly affect our ability to defend China as we should: with undying loyalty. Our duty to our country has to be our chief priority, but if we were to truly fall in… love… those priorities could become seriously disordered, putting all of China at risk." She looked at him, her ruby eyes glowing in the near dark. "It's already risky, being this close of a friend to you… If it was a choice between your life or the life of the Emperor, I honestly don't know what I'd choose…" She straightened up. "Which is why my irrational actions today were _completely _out of line, and must stop before they go any farther." She stood up, and he followed her. "Forgive me my lapse in sensibility, Dragon Warrior; it won't happen again."

She was about to bow formally to him when he stopped her, putting a hand on top of hers. The look on his face surprised her out of her action: it was slightly scolding, as if she was acting like a child.

"Now _you're_ the one who's not being 'sensible' and stuff," he said. "Listen, Tigress: if you feel something that strongly, shoving your emotions down isn't going to work. Believe me, I tried that, and it got me shot into a river. It's not going to make your fighting any better; s'matter of fact, it'll probably make it worse."

She blinked, surprised at his insight. "I… You're right," she said, stunned. "I didn't think of it like that." She was silent for a moment, and then said, "But in that case, what do you suggest we do?"

He shrugged. "I say we walk into that kitchen holding hands, and then chase Mantis out when he cracks a joke."

She considered this. "You know what? I think that's a wonderful idea."

His face split into his signature goofy grin, and he held out a paw. She took it, and they walked back inside.

The night was peaceful, quiet. A full moon shone over head. Crickets chirruped in the grass. It was beautiful. Peaceful.

And then, the kitchen door burst open, and Mantis ran out laughing like a maniac, the tiger and the panda hot on his heels.


	40. Chapter 40 I Used to Wonder

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

I used to wonder

If I had a heart

Or if I'd lost it long ago

And left it in that blackened building.

.

I used to wonder

If I had a soul

Or if I was just another monster

That this world needed to be purged of.

.

I used to wonder

If I was any good at all

Or if I wasn't just some sort of

Leftover darkness that had no place to go.

.

I used to wonder

Why I survived

When both my parents died

In the fires that consumed my home.

.

I used to wonder

If I was worth anything

Even when my master told me

That greatness was my destiny.

.

I used to wonder

Why I hadn't been chosen

Why I'd been passed by

Without any chance at all.

.

I used to wonder

If I even had a purpose

Or if I really was useless,

As useless as they all used to say.

.

I used to wonder

If I was weak

For not fulfilling a fate

That I'd never had the right to.

.

I used to wonder

If I was made of fire

Because, though I burned high to the sky

I knew how quickly I could be put out.

.

I used to wonder

If I was made of the earth

Because I felt my heart thaw

Like flowers in the spring.

.

I used to wonder

Whether I deserved him

A friend that would listen

And carry me through.

.

I used to wonder

If I could help him

Through the pain that I too felt

And couldn't overcome.

.

I used to wonder

If I could protect him

By hiding him away

And keeping him safe.

.

I used to wonder

If I was really in love,

This stunning new feeling

Like my first breath of fresh air.

.

I used to wonder

If I had a heart.

I know that I do

Because it's broken.

.

I used to wonder,

And now all I can do

Is ask myself why I wondered

And never acted on my feelings.

I used to wonder…


	41. Chapter 41 In Honor of Immaculée

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

_"Mommy?"_

_ The small tiger looked around in the white mist, trying to find her mother. They'd been separated when the bandits had attacked, and while her mother had told her to hide, the elder tigress hadn't had time to run._

_ Now her daughter was back in the town of tigers. It was silent as the dead._

_ "Hello?" she called. "Is anyone here?"_

_ Nothing. The swirling mist settled onto her fur, making her cold and wet._

_ She slowly began to walk through the town, tracing her way through the streets she knew well, despite her only being five winters old._

_ Suddenly, she spotted a figure in the road. She smiled and quickly ran over to it, and then frowned slightly. "Uncle Tan? Why are you sleeping?" She gently nudged the tiger with her foot. "Uncle Tan?" Then, she looked past him and gasped._

_ There were fallen tigers all over the road, so many that the dirt had been turned red in many places. It took her a few moments to realize it was blood, and __that__ was when she realized that they weren't asleep._

_ No, they weren't asleep. They were never waking up._

_ With a choked sob, she began rushing between the bodies, trying not to throw up by the mangled images she saw. So many people she knew… people she cared about…_

_ Suddenly, she stopped, her eyes locked on one body._

_ There, in the middle of the road, was her mother._

_ "No!" she yelled, running over and dropping to her knees beside the body. "No…" she whispered again. "Mommy. Mommy, please, please don't be dead."_

_ Her mother didn't answer._

_ "M-mommy?"_

_ Still no answer._

_ That was when it hit her: her mother was never coming back._

_ She began to sob, heartbroken by her mother's death, furious with the gods for taking her life. She scrambled to her feet and began to run, run to anywhere, run to nowhere…_

_ Run straight to the nearest building she could find: Bao Gu Orphanage…_

…Tigress sat up, breathing hard. She blinked a number of times, trying to figure out where she was.

Then, she remembered. She was Master Tigress of the Jade Palace, one of the best warriors in China.

But for some reason, that didn't comfort her at all.

"Tigress?" someone whispered in the darkness.

She jumped about a foot. "Po?" Then, she grew angry. "Don't scare me like that!" she hissed.

"Sorry. But I heard you crying in your sleep and came in… did you have a bad dream?"

She blinked. _Was I really crying in my sleep?_ She reached up to her face, and felt that her fur was wet. "I… suppose you could say that."

He sat down on the edge of her bed. "Wanna talk about it?"

"No I do _not_ want to ta-" She cut herself off. Who was she kidding? "I- I suppose… but you'd better not tell anyone!" she threatened.

He situated himself so that he was comfortable, and then said, "So… what was it about?"

She hesitated for a moment, and then said, "When I was very young, about a year before Shifu took me from Bao Gu… my entire village was killed by bandits."

His mouth dropped open. "Whoa."

"It was… horrible. My mother told me to hide in one of the upstairs closets under a pile of clothes… I thought I was going to die, but the bandits never found me. When I came out, everyone- everyone had been massacred. Blood and bodies were everywhere. And my mother…" She trailed off, unable to finish. "I was the only one who survived. The only one. Everyone else was murdered." She sat there for a moment, her breath short and light, as if she didn't have enough air. Suddenly, she grabbed Po's shoulders, looking him dead in the eyes.

"How did you do it?" she demanded. "How did you forgive him?"

"Forgive who?"

"Shen. How did you forgive the person who killed your entire race, your whole family!" She shook her head. "Where do you find your strength? How can you let that kind of wound heal? _Why did you give him mercy_?"

Po pulled her into a hug, and she started to sob into his fur. After a few moments, he said gently, "I did because there was nothing else I _could_ give him."

**A/N: This story is in honor of Immaculée Ilibagiza, one of the survivors of the Rwandan Genocide. During the horrible genocide of thousands of Tustis, she and seven other women hid in a bathroom for 91 days, in the house of her local pastor, Pastor Murinzi. When she got out, she found that nearly everyone in her family had been killed: both parents and her two brothers, Damascene and Vianney, along with other relatives. The only person in her immediate family to survive aside from her was her brother, Aimable, who was out of the country at the time of the holocaust. Despite everything that had happened to her, she forgave the killers that had tortured and killed her family and countless others. God bless you, Immaculée.**


	42. Chapter 42 Second Chances

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

"Come on, please at least talk to me!"

"Why should I?" she hissed. "So you can tell me all about your _special night_?"

Mantis winced. The phrase 'hell hath no fury as a woman scorned' seemed appropriate for the situation. "Viper, I said I was sorry!"

"Oh, you think it's that simple, do you?" the snake demanded. "You think you can just say anything and I'll believe you? Well, I'm sorry, Mantis, but any trust I had in you is now officially _gone!_"

The insect felt like his heart was being torn in two. "But-"

"You like that butterfly so much? FINE! GO TO HER! I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!" she screamed, furious tears spilling from her eyes. "I HATE YOU! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOUR FACE AGAIN, YOU DISPICABLE- FOUL- LYING- CHEATING-" She punctuated every word with a strike to a nearby tree, "-BACKSTABING, NO-GOOD SON OF A-"

He cringed again, as her tirade of insults crashed over him like the waves of a stormy sea. When she finally finished, her anger having reached a place where no words could describe it, and a horrible, deafening, roaring silence took its place.

The silence seemed worse than the rant, and it was driving him insane. When it finally reached a point where he could almost no longer stand it, and was about to speak, Viper suddenly said:

"Why?"

He blinked, startled. "What?"

"Why'd you give yourself to her? Wasn't I good enough for you? Or- or was it that I said no? That I held my chastity?" Her eyes filled with tears again, this time not tears of fury, but of rejection and sadness. "Was that all I was to you? A body? And when you couldn't have that-"

"No!" he gasped. "Viper, no, I wasn't- I mean-"

"You know what? Never mind. Never mind. I don't even know why I'm so upset," she said, laughing sadly and wiping away the tears that were still spilling from her eyes. "I mean, it's not like I lost anything. You can't lose things that never existed in the first place." She turned away, about to head back to the Palace.

"Wait," he said, from behind her.

She was going to go on, but something about his tone stopped her. It wasn't an order. It wasn't a command. It was…

A plea.

"Wait," he begged again. "Oh gods, Viper, please, just- Listen, she- that girl- she meant nothing to me."

"Nice cliché," Viper said bitterly.

"No, I mean-"

"Don't bother explaining; it doesn't really ma-"

"I was weak."

His words surprised her. "What?"

"I was weak," he repeated. "I wanted her, and I knew that having her was wrong and it wasn't going make me happy, not really, but I did it anyway. I gave in. I am… so pathetic, when it comes to how I act around women."

Viper didn't say anything, just looked at him. He couldn't tell what she was thinking, but plowed on ahead.

"I'm not saying that's an excuse. As a matter of fact, I mean the exact opposite. I know that when it comes to girls, I've got problems. I can't stay away from them, and I've got a lot of trouble committing to just one." His voice broke at the end, died off. "But in all the years I've been fooling around with other girls, I've never, not once felt about them the way I feel about you. You- you hold yourself to a higher standard. You don't let anyone get the better of you. Viper, you make me _want_ to be a better man."

He swallowed, and he knew that she could see the tears in his eyes, despite his efforts not to cry. "I know I don't deserve forgiveness. I know that I've been a jerk and I don't deserve you. But… I'm asking for one last chance. Just one. If I don't meet- no, if I don't _exceed_ your expectations, you can break up with me and throw me off the mountain, too. But I need you, okay? I'm a mess without you, and Viper, I don't think I could take it if I had to keep on living without you. I love you." He fell silent, waiting for her verdict.

Her own eyes were brimming with tears now, and she struggled to keep them back. "Alright," she said, her voice shaky. "Alright, Mantis, I'll give you another shot. But there're going to be some changes."

He nodded, ready to agree to anything.

"You can look at other women; I don't mind that. You can talk to them, too. But if you really do love me, then you won't flirt with them, you won't kiss them, and you definitely won't betray my trust like this again." He winced, but nodded. "And if I _ever_ catch you with another woman again…"

"You won't," he assured her. "You wouldn't even need to catch us, because it's never going to happen. _Ever._"

Slowly, she started to smile, and he let go of the breath he hadn't known he was holding, relieved beyond all measure. "I'll hold you to that, you know," she said.

"I know." He smiled back, and he knew that, though it was going to be tough, he could do this for the woman he loved. "I know."

**A/N: How about that? A serious oneshot with Mantis as one of the main characters. **BTW, I was thinking about doing one of those oneshots where people send in random words and the author turns them into little sentence things. Send in your words, people; I'll pick 10 of them and put them as my next chapter.** **


	43. Chapter 43 10 Words

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

**Batman**

As they watched the angry tiger chase the panda around the palace, there were only two questions in their minds: 1) "Who's Joker?" and 2) "Where did Po get that cape?"

**Break**

She stared at the shattered vase, wide-eyed, with her paws pressed to her mouth. Despite Po's constant reassurances that he did this kind of stuff twice a week and thrice on leap years, she couldn't help but feel terrified at her master's reaction when he saw the broken porcelain.

**Virtue**

"Wisdom, moderation, courage, fairness, chastity, fasting-"

"Whoa, whoa, wait," Mantis said, putting his front legs up in the air. "We've got to do _all_ of those?"

Shifu gave him a look. "If you haven't been already? Yes."

Mantis sighed. "Okay, okay…" He frowned for a moment, and then muttered to Monkey, "Well, at least I won't be the only one _starving_ for something."

Both of them looked over at Po, whose face had fallen at the word 'fasting.' This was going to be a looooong week…

**Starry Sky**

Mei Ling couldn't help but smile as Crane pointed to the stars, showing her the different constellations and telling her their stories.

**Midnight**

"They're so cute!" Viper squealed from the bushes.

"Keep it down!" Tigress hissed. "Do you want to get us caught?"

The five of them all looked out at the bird and the mountain cat in the grass. Tigress' face softened, and she smiled wistfully, if that was even possible. "She's right, though," she said softly. "They are adorable."

Po smiled, too, the only one who'd heard.

**Valor**

Po blinked and opened his eyes, seeing his comrades all around him. As he looked around, he realized he was in the Palace infirmary, and his head hurt something awful.

"What happened?" he mumbled.

"You took a hammer to the head," Crane answered. "It's lucky you're not dead."

Po nodded, dazed, and then looked over at Tigress. Surprised, he realized she was close to tears.

"You took that blow for me, Po," she said, struggling to keep her voice from shaking. "If you hadn't… I would've died."

**Equal**

She turned her head away from the shouts and insults, feeling tears burn her eyes and trace fiery lines down her white-fringed cheeks. She was not like them. She was _different._ She was not like a normal person, and the sooner she realized that, the better.

**Alone**

She looked out over the edge of the cliff, her eyes dull, lifeless. It was a sensation she was used to: the sensation of the living dead.

Her heart felt ugly, her mind clouded, her limbs like lead. Loneliness did that to a person.

Suddenly, she shouted at the sky, "Why me? Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this? What did I ever do to deserve being alone?" Then, for the first time in many years, she wept.

Little did she know that an aged turtle was watching just a ways away, and in that instant had a vision: a vision of claws, attacks, and a snow leopard. And also…

And also, he saw a panda. A solution. He saw a friend for the friendless warrior, who wanted nothing more than to be loved.

**Goodbye**

He stifled a sob as he and the Five watched their beloved master be swept away by the peach petals, leaving the panda and the tiger his symbols of power.

**Cake**

Po pulled her up onto the stand, and said, "I'd like to share my birthday- I mean, adoption day- with someone who's never had a real birthday of her own. See, she's adopted, like me, and she's never had a present or worn a party hat or even eaten a slice of cake. So…" He looked over at her. "Happy Birthday, Tigress."

**A/N: So yeah, more than one sentence for most of them. *shrugs* Oh well.**


	44. Chapter 44 Stars

**A/N: HAPPY ST. VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE! For those who aren't Catholic, here's a little education for ya:**

**The most famous of the various St. Valentines was a priest in the third century. Way back then, the Emperor Claudius decided that single guys were better soldiers than married guys, so he made it against the law for young men to get married. St. Valentine was like 'Screw you, Claudius,' and married the people in secret.**

**Eventually, Claudius found out and had St. V killed. Valentine is the patron saint of lovers and married couples, and many people struggling with disordered sexual desires ask him to pray for them.***

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

"They're going to catch us out here."

"Don't be such a baby."

"I'm not a baby!"

The feline gave him a doubtful look, and he sighed. "Fine. But if anyone asks, this was all your idea, Mei Ling!"

"Hm. I can take that." The mountain cat grinned at him, and Crane felt his heart miss a beat.

Ever since Mei Ling had joined their little group of warriors, turning it from six to seven, she and Crane had been secretly meeting each other somewhere every Thursday night. Why Thursday? Simple: because no one who could rat them out would be at a usual date place on Thursday.

They had, of course, enlisted the help of the others: Po and Tigress, for one, as well as Viper. Mantis and Monkey were obviously out, of course, but Crane had the peculiar feeling that Po had spilled the beans to them. It didn't really matter all that much, though; Shifu was the one they had to hide it from.

Tonight, however, they were nowhere in the town. Instead, they were on one of the cliffs of the Mountain, looking up at the stars.

"You know," Crane said, looking down at her (he was standing, while she was lying on the ground), "When I was really little, I used to ask my mom if she'd ever flown high enough to touch the stars."

"What did she say?"

"She said that whether she had didn't matter; what mattered was whether I would try to."

Mei Ling grinned. "That's sweet," she said softly. "You must really miss her."

"Sometimes. But I always know she's still with me, right here." He touched a feather to his chest, and then coughed. "Well, anyway," he said, embarrassed by the gushiness of the moment, "How are you liking it here at the palace?"

"…I'm not exactly sure," she said honestly. "It's very different from the Academy, being a student instead of a teacher."

"Yeah, well, wait for your turn to teach the beginner's class," Crane said, chuckling. "That should be interesting…"

"The beginner's class?"

"Kids that we teach Kung Fu to. They're mostly bunnies, and we all rotate turns teaching them, because we can't take more than one class each in a row." He shook his head. "Po's the best with them, and the girls are alright, but the rest of us can't get them in order no matter what we do."

She giggled. "What about teaching classes together? Would that help?"

"I think Po and Tigress tried that once. It didn't turn out well… and it took a while to get her tail untied from his leg."

"Oh." She smiled sweetly at him, and he ducked his head, feeling his cheeks go red. "I think we could handle them together."

"Oh, I-I don't-"

"Have a little faith in your abilities, Crane. After all, isn't that the reason you passed the entrance exams for the Academy? Because of your confidence?"

"W-well yes, but-"

"Then let me see some of that confidence."

Crane nodded, and then said quietly to himself, "So she wants confidence?"

Her ears flicked. "Did you say something?"

"Um, well, yes. I mean no. I mean-" He sighed, having had enough with his own lack of courage, and leaned down, giving her a quick, nervous peck on the cheek with his beak.

She looked up at him, startled. "What was that for?"

He went a brilliant shade of red. "W-well, you said you wanted me to be confident," he stammered.

Her look of surprise changed to one of understanding. "You don't have to impress me, Crane."

"Oh. R-right, sorry-"

"But," she continued, "That doesn't mean I didn't like it."

His heart stopped altogether, and even if it hadn't started beating again a moment later, that would've been fine with him, considering he was already in Heaven. "Really?"

She smiled a little, nodded. "Really."

They both went back to staring at the stars, and for a while, neither said a word. Then, suddenly, Crane pointed up at the sky. "That's the river," he said quietly.

"Hm?"

"The river. It's from an old story, one about a goddess that loved a cowherd. The river separates them and keeps them from each other, but once a year, the birds feel sorry for them and make a bridge across the sky, so they can meet."

As he continued from one fable to the next, Mei Ling couldn't help but smile as Crane pointed to the stars, showing her the different constellations and telling her their stories. She couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, someday another young couple would point up at the sky and say, "Do you know the story about the janitor and the warrior?"

"No," the other would reply.

"Well, once upon a time…"

_El Fin_

***Information on exact times and names from ****http: /holidays. kaboose. com/valentines-day /history/val-history. html**** .**


	45. Chapter 45 Flirt

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

"I can't believe we have to do this," Mantis grumbled.

"Oh, don't complain," Viper chided. "Green is a lovely color on you."

It was your typical mission: sneak inside an evil wanna-be overlord's palace, take him down, and send his sorry tail off to Chorh-gom prison.

It was all standard… except for one _tiny_ detail:

They were all going in as women for the overlord's harem.

So far, five out of the six of them were already dressed in the robes Viper had picked out for them at the market a few days previous, and were waiting in the woods for the sixth to be finished. Mantis was in dark green, Crane in blue, Monkey in pale yellow, Po in violet, and Viper in pink ribbons that complemented the flowers on her head. Each had on bright red lipstick and various colors of eye-shadow, rouge, and different hair pieces. To say the least, for all men involved, it was absolutely _humiliating, _which was why they had all taken as long as possible to get ready. In fact, the only one that had taken longer was the other female of the group.

"Tigress, would you hurry up?" Viper called back to where the feline was changing.

"I look ridiculous!" she growled, stomping out into the open with a scowl on her face.

Every man present gawked. Tigress was dressed in a pale green (she'd adamantly refused pink), gauzy robe, decorated with golden lotus embroidery, with two sprigs of whitish-green flowers on the inside edges of her ears. The robe was long enough to hide her unbound feet, and it flittered slightly in the evening breeze.

"Whoa," Mantis said finally. "Tigress, who knew you could look hot?"

The feline went a brilliant shade of red under her orange fur and snapped, "Would you please focus on the mission!"

"Hey, I'm a guy!" the bug protested. "It's like some sort of built-in mechanism: see a girl, rank how attractive she is!"

"Well, it's _my_ built-in mechanism to take shallow-minded insects and throw them as far as I can see," she retorted.

"Alright, alright, settle down," Viper said seriously. "We need to get into that palace without being seen."

They all looked through the trees at the palace gates, which were being defended by two rhino guards.

"Maybe," Tigress agreed. "Or maybe we need to be seen in order to get in."

"Wait, are you saying that one of us should flirt with them?" Crane asked.

"Exactly." She looked around. "Any volunteers?"

"Not me," every male said, at the exact same time.

"I don't think they'd pay much attention to me," Viper said, with a sigh. She looked expectantly at Tigress.

"Me?" the feline said, surprised. When everyone gave her the 'no duh' look, she scowled. "Fine." She stalked out through the trees, seriously hoping that she had even a little bit of a flirtatious side.

As the others watched, she walked gracefully up to the guards. "Hello," she said, smiling.

The guards looked at each other, surprised. "Er… hello?" said the nearest one. "Who are you? What's your business here?"

She giggled. "My name is Yú. I'm the newest member of the harem here. My escort is just a ways behind, but," She batted her eyes at him, "I couldn't wait to see the palace. I'm just so excited!"

The guard glanced behind him at his buddy, and saw that he wasn't there. To be honest, he didn't know where he was, and he didn't care; all he knew was that here was a pretty young lady, and he hadn't gotten this much attention from a girl in _months._ In an attempt to be suave, he said (puffing his chest out a bit), "Well, miss, it is a rather big castle."

Tigress, also seeing that the other guard was gone, switched from airhead to coy in an instant. "You mean this isn't all?" she said, taking a tiny step closer, smiling flirtatiously.

"Oh, no, miss."

"Well, it's lucky to be protected by such a big, handsome guard as yourself." She stepped closer again, tilting her head.

"Well, thank you." He smiled proudly.

"I know I'm going to be part of the lord's harem, but," she pouted, "I can't help but think that he has so many other women to chose from, he'll never get around to me."

"Oh, I doubt that. You're real pretty, miss."

"You think so?" Tigress said, faking 'sultry-but-pretending-to-be-innocent' (which was a lot harder than it looked, pretending to pretend). She put a paw to her hips and glanced down, as if evaluating herself, and then back up, giving him a small, mischievous smirk. "I'm not so sure."

"Oh no, miss, you're quite a woman."

She smiled even wider and batted her eyes. "Well thank you. You're not bad yourself." She took a step forward and 'tripped,' falling into him.

The rhino caught her instinctively. "Whoa. You alright?"

"I- I think so. Bound feet, you know."

"Oh. Yes, of course."

She pulled away just slightly, shifting slightly so that one hand was on the outside of his elbow and the other on his shoulder. He ended up in the same position as her.

Tigress looked up at him. "You're so strong…" she said, her voice implying a lot more than a compliment. She glanced to the side. "Your partner's gone?"

He looked over. "Yeah. We're alone."

"Good," Tigress said, smiling. Then, before he could do anything, she whirled around while still in his grasp and threw him over her shoulder. **(A/N: That's technically a Judo throw, but I thought it'd work well). **She dropped to the ground and punched the guard straight in the temple.

She motioned to the others, and they moved the guard into the woods with the other (who, of course, had been taken care of). As they were walking towards the door, Po asked her "How did you _do _that? I mean, he totally fell for it!"

She shrugged. "Cat's instinct." Then, she smirked at him, touched a claw to his chest flirtatiously, and said, "But he wasn't my type." She chuckled a little at their faces and followed Viper inside.

The four guys' mouths were wide open. "Whoa," Mantis said finally.

The other three nodded. "Whoa," they echoed.


	46. Chapter 46 I Promise

_Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this._

So this is

Pain.

**I've almost forgotten.**

_It's so familiar._

This pain is

Consuming me.

It's

**Red**

_Blue_

Like

**An inferno.**

_This icy cold water._

It hurts.

I thought

**I couldn't feel it anymore.**

_I was used to it._

I was such a fool.

**I tried-**

**I promise! I tried!**

_I thought I could beat him this time._

It wasn't enough.

I feel like

**I am burning alive.**

_Crying._

_This isn't fair._

_He hurt her!_

**He'll kill him.**

**He'll kill all of us.**

_You hurt my best friend._

**I can't do anything. I'm too weak.**

_She looks so… beaten._

Why does it hurt so much?

**My whole body burns… my heart aches.**

_It's killing me, to see her like this._

**I- I failed everyone.**

This is all my fault.

_I have to do something. I have to set this right!_

**Po? Where are you going?**

_You can't do this to them, Shen. I won't let you._

Po, what are you doing? He'll kill you!

_It's gonna be okay, Tigress. I promise._

**No! Don't- don't-**

_I promise._


	47. Chapter 47 Weep

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this. I got the information on 'ghosts' from Amy Tan's book, The Joy Luck Club. This is also written in the style of Amy Tan (or as much so as I can pray for… I could never even dream of attaining her awesomeness, much less hope to make even a pale imitation of her style. :P). This was inspired by the short story in said book, entitled 'Magpies.'

**KFP**

When I was very young, my _niang,_ my mother, who was very sick, called me to her bedside.

She banished all the servants from the room, and then told me to come closer. I did, and she took my paw in hers.

"Chow, listen to me," she said, and her voice was very soft. "I am very close to passing on from this world. Before I go, I have a few words to tell you. Now, you must never repeat this to anyone, except for your own daughter, if you have one. Never tell this to anyone else, especially not a man.

"You are very young, and do not yet understand the ways of this world. When you grow older, you will learn that there is an order to everything: sea and the earth, moon and the sun, man and woman.

"A man is very strong. He protects the woman. He can fight and build and use his hands. Woman is not so strong; she is weaker than the man. But," and here, she looked me in the eyes, "While she is weaker in body than a man, she must be stronger in heart.

"Chow, you will see other girls cry, and you will want to cry, too. But in my life, I have learned that crying will only make someone else happy. When you are alone, or with a trusted friend, then you may weep, but never in front of the world. It will only take advantage of your tears. So, when I pass, you must promise me that you will not cry. Do you understand?"

I nodded, and she smiled weakly at me. "Good. Now, go outside to play." I did, and in that same hour, my mother's spirit passed on to the next life.

Many people cried when they laid her to rest, but I did not. I remembered my promise, and when my father, too, passed on a month later, I did not shed a tear.

My mother and father were both young, and had no older children, nor had my father had the time to take any other wives. They had very little money, and what they did have was distributed to distant relatives, friends, and other faceless, nameless people I did not know. While the money and family heirlooms were taken, nobody wanted me, so I was sent to an orphanage.

I roomed with many other children, twenty, at least, all my age. It was the children's ward, and at night, you didn't have to be a good listener to hear their crying. The other children would dream of their dead parents, and wake, and weep, and then dream some more. We all wept eventually, remembering only in dreams the people whose faces faded from waking memory.

But, I was different. Oh, I cried, yes. But not loudly, like the others. They would weep and wail and shout with their mouths wide open. I would keep my mouth closed tight and cry silently, so no one could hear me.

Soon, I became bigger, stronger than any of the others. All my emotions were trapped inside, and these feelings soon began to pour out, like a bowl of water that had been filled too high.

People began to get hurt, and everything I touched broke. I was a very bad child, and soon, the others started to call me a monster.

When they called me that, I was always very confused. Not why they were calling me it, you see, but whether or not I liked it. I called myself a monster a few times, whispered it in the dark, and it tasted sour-sweet in my mouth, like a lemon covered in sugar. It tasted good at first, but when the sugar was all gone, the sourness made my lips pucker into a smile that wasn't happy.

Soon, I was so bad, the orphanage called in help. That was when I met Master Shifu.

I remember the first time I saw him, I tried to scare him away. I didn't want him anywhere near me. I didn't want him to try to 'help.' I think even then, I knew that it hurt more to knock over the walls I'd built around myself than it did to be in them.

He seemed very strange to me, because when I saw him, it was like I was looking in a mirror. I understood that he also had reasons to cry in the dark, where no one could hear him. So, because of this, I let him teach me. I wanted to know why he was so sad and scared.

Eventually, after he had taught me all he could about being a child, he decided to show me how to be an adult. He took me home to a large palace and raised me to be a defender of the Valley of Peace, like himself.

And yet…

And yet, something was amiss. One day, I asked him why he was so sad. He was startled and then said, "I am not sad. Why do you ask?"

"Even if you're not sad, you don't seem happy."

He was silent for a moment, and then said, "I had a son, once. He is a ghost now." And I understood that his son was not dead, but that he was never to be talked about, because this is what a ghost was: someone who was 'dead' to his living relatives.

So, for a long time, I knew nothing about my brother, except that he had done something very bad and that I wasn't ever supposed to talk about him.

Eventually, I learned the details- from villagers, the vegetable man, Master Oogway- and then I knew that Tai Lung was no brother to me. He was absolutely evil. It was this that finally convinced me that I wasn't and never could be Shifu's daughter: if Master was Tai Lung's adoptive father, and I had no brother, then he had no sister, Shifu no daughter, and I no family.

That night, I again cried with my mouth closed.

The next morning, I washed my face, put on my training clothes, and never used the term 'baba' again, so that the word became foreign in my mouth.

Yet, I still wanted a family. Even if I was not his daughter, he was still my father, and I did everything I could to win his approval.

It was never enough.

I learned to follow my mother's advice, from so long ago, and I sopped crying, even when alone. I had no trusted friends. I trusted no one at all.

Not until him.

After Po came, my life began to change. It frightened me. Everything became very warm, and so used was I to cold that I felt like I was burning alive. Soon, though, I learned to love the fire, and for the first time I could remember, I wasn't alone.

I thought that happiness would last forever. I thought I would never loose him.

I cannot cry now. Even with my best friend dead, my tears will not run. It's not that I don't want to. I want to cry. I want to weep. I want to scream and sob and let this boat be flooded with my tears.

I cannot remember how.


	48. Chapter 48 Assumptions

…And what they make of you and me. X ]

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

A/N: A request from everyone who wants a funny oneshot… *Evil laugh*

Gdown94: You're right, I didn't go deep enough into the TiPo relationship… And no, not overly critical at all! Your advice was very good, and you're absolutely right, I gave it too little buildup with Po there. Again, thanks for the review!

For once, Tigress wished she wasn't such an eavesdropper. If she wasn't, this never would have happened.

It wasn't exactly her fault, per say; she had a cat's ears, and those little beauties picked up everything. It was a blessing and a curse; often times, she heard things she didn't necessarily want to hear (gag) or, like today, completely misunderstand the situation.

Having stayed behind an extra few minutes to train before dinner, she hadn't heard the entire conversation, and as she walked into the barracks and headed for the kitchen, she heard Mantis say, "When I do something, I do it right. I don't sit around like a wuss; I go real strong and fast."

There was some laughter at this, all male, and she heard Viper make a disapproving noise at the insect's overly-inflated ego.

"I bet I'm even better than Tigress! Not that that's saying much- I wonder if she even can?"

This brought the laughter to a whole new level, though it was uneasy and accompanied by some guilt (Viper said, "That's low, Mantis!"), and Tigress' eyes narrowed. _No one_ insulted her skills. She was a better fighter than him, and she knew it. What, did he think he could say whatever he wanted, just because she wasn't in earshot?

Well. She _was_ in earshot, and she was going to set. Him. Straight.

She strode up to the kitchen door and said, "Please. Everyone knows I can beat your ass anytime I so choose."

Everyone whirled around in shock and saw the angry tiger master. Mantis gulped.

"As a matter of fact, I'm not opposed to having a little contest right now," she continued, her voice that of icy fury. "We can see who's really faster, stronger…" she narrowed her eyes even more, and let an evil smirk play on her face. "Better."

Everyone stared at her for a moment, and then, the most unexpected thing happened: they burst out laughing.

She blinked in surprise. Every single one of them was almost rolling on the floor, Viper included. "What in the name of all the gods has gotten into all of you?" she demanded angrily.

This got her another round of laughter. "Tigress- Tigress, seriously, stop!" Viper said, choking on her own laughter.

"Why should I?" she demanded. "If Mantis thinks he's such a hot-shot, I want him to show me right now how 'talented' he is!"

Mantis was nearly crying with glee. "It's not a talent, it's an art!"

Her eyes narrowed angrily once more. "I wouldn't be laughing, bug!" she hissed. "Po can tell you just how merciless I can be when it comes to this!"

Po went a vibrant shade of red as all the guys pointed at him, cackling and going, "Ohhhhhh!"

"I bet he can!" Monkey whooped.

"What is so-" Then, it hit her in the face like a sucker-punch. "Oh gods," she said, going as red as Po. "Viper!" she hissed, turning on the snake.

"I-I'm s-s-sorry, Tigress, I tried to warn y-ahahaha!" the snake couldn't even finish her sentence, she was laughing so hard.

"Wow, Tigress, and I thought you were a virgin!" Monkey called.

She growled. "I didn't mean it like that!"

"Really? 'Cuz I think YOU TOTALLY DID!" Mantis yelled, grinning so wide, Tigress had to wonder how that big smirk even fit on his tiny face.

"I am going to murder you in training tomorrow!" she threatened, but even she had to admit, it was a weak attempt. Furiously, she grabbed her bowl of soup off the table, accidentally sloshing some of the hot broth on her arms.

"Oh, look!" Mantis said, chortling. "She's _all wet!_"

There was one solution, and one solution only: Tigress' ears lowered, she glowered at them for a moment, and then turned and left for her own room, plotting her revenge to the background of her comrades' peals of laughter.


	49. Chapter 49 A Cup of Tea

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this. I got the info on gingko leaf tea from http: /www. / Gingko-Tea. Asp

**A/N: A bit of an unusual pairing, though it's been done before. Full credit to the author of 'A Heart-Shaped Box of Silks' for the inspiration!**

**Also, I will do the requests for Tigress' Revenge next, and the one Zayzay recommended- Dé jà vu- after.**

_ This is absolutely ridiculous._

It was a phrase that kept repeating through his mind, along with a number of three-and-four-letter expletives used to describe the situation, as well as himself and his massive stupidity.

He didn't understand himself, really. He could knock out wolf bandits without breaking a sweat, he could jump off impossibly high structures and not worry about hitting a bird on the way down, much less the ground, and he had no problem taking down any number of enemies, and yet he couldn't knock on a simple door.

All in all, Shifu was a wreck and a half.

It had started out alright. He'd left the Palace without anyone noticing, made it down the stairs and into the village without any trouble (save a few greetings from other passing villagers) and was now standing outside a small house, trying to get up the courage to knock on the door of the house the Soothsayer was renting for a few weeks (to check up on the Warrior of Black and White).

"Looking for someone?"

He whirled around, surprised that his sharp ears hadn't caught the sound of footsteps, and yet another four-letter word entered his head.

"Erm, yes, ma'am," he said, bowing quickly to the Soothsayer. "I was-" He coughed "-Well, you see, I-"

"Would you like to come in?"

He blinked. "Pardon?"

"Would you like to come in?" she repeated. "It's cold out, after all, and I have water boiling for tea."

"I- I suppose so," he said, a little bewildered by this change of events.

She walked past him and pulled out her key, opening the door and leading the way inside.

He was a little wary walking in, unsure of what he would find in the house of a fortune teller. Surprisingly, it was fairly normal: a small woodstove in the corner with a pot of boiling water on it and a counter beside it, a small table with chairs (her bowl was set in the center), a few cupboards, and a stand for her cane beside the door. In one of the corners opposite him was a small, low bed with a quilt covering it, and in the other a shrine with a few candles and a small painting. The picture had two goats in it, one male, one female.

She caught him looking at it and said, "My parents. Both long dead, of course. My mother was the Seer for Lord Shen's parents- may they rest in peace forever."

He nodded and bowed slightly. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the woodstove and counter. He noticed two cups, pre-laid out, and a small box with different, small dried herbs in it.

"You have tea set for two," he pointed out.

She smiled at him bemusedly. "Yes."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to impose if you were intending on meeting someone."

"That someone is already here."

Shifu blinked, suddenly understanding. "Ah. I see." He glanced over at the shrine again, and he could've sworn that the deceased father was giving him a stern glare. He looked back at the Soothsayer. "So, you know why I am here?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that."

"Wouldn't you?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Not quite. I knew you would be here, so I set tea for two. I also know you have come to talk to me about something quite important, though I can tell that from how nervous you are." She gestured towards the table. "Won't you have a seat?"

"Er- yes. Thank you kindly." He walked over to the chairs and hopped up onto one of them. Remarkably, he found it tall enough to reach the table without having to stand up on it, which was a pleasant surprise. He noticed that the other chair was shorter, and again was reminded of the goat's exceptional foresight.

The Soothsayer put down a cup of tea in front of him and said, "I hope you enjoy ginkgo leaf tea. If you don't, I'll be happy to make you another; it's an odd preference of mine."

"Really? Mine as well; my master always had me drink it. Supposedly, it's good for one's memory."

She smiled. "At our age, goodness knows we need it."

He chuckled a little and nodded, taking a sip. It was still a little hot, so he put it back down.

"So," the Soothsayer said calmly. "Would you care to explain this… well, expected pleasure then, Grandmaster?"

"Er- well, you see, it's something of a- a long, difficult story." He took another sip of the tea, despite his heat, to try and give himself time to think. It didn't do him much good; his mind still felt foggy and unclear, and he was having trouble forming coherent sentences before he said them. "Well, you know how we met in Gongmen harbor, after the fireworks were over?"

She nodded. "Indeed. I recall we discussed the battle some, and what would happen to the ruling of Gongmen City."

"Yes, well." He coughed a little. "You see, Po-"

"The Dragon Warrior?"

"Yes, him. He was standing nearby, and he got it into his head that we, well, we fancied each other." He flushed a shade of scarlet so deep, it not only showed through his white fur, but also added some color to that which was already red.

"I see."

"He really does get strange ideas sometimes," Shifu went on, not really even sure what he was saying. "He assumes things so quickly and- well, in any case, he soon passed on his… notions… to the others, and I haven't heard the end of it since. To put it bluntly, I came down here to set things straight once and for all."

"And yet you did not tell your students you were coming," she said wisely.

He opened his mouth to ask her how she knew that, before realizing there wasn't really much of a point. "Yes, I thought we'd have a- how should I put it?- a more _peaceful_ conversation without his- their interference."

She chuckled a little, not missing his slip-up. "He does have a tendency to… become a bit enthusiastic, when given the opportunity."

"Quite."

"Well," she said, taking off her glasses and folding them. "You said you came all the way down here to 'set things straight,' did you not?"

"Yes, I did."

She smiled serenely at him and waited for him to elaborate.

He winced. "Well, you see- I mean, the truth of the matter is-"

It was here that he realized she was trying very hard not to laugh at him. "Is something amusing you?" he said, a little angry, but more embarrassed.

"Only that you are a lovely shade of scarlet," she said, chuckling. "But you've made your point clear enough, Grandmaster."

"I- yes. Of course." There was a moment of awkward silence, before he said, "I suppose I'll be leaving, then…"

"What for? You haven't finished your tea," she pointed out.

"I assumed you would make me leave," he said, surprised that she hadn't already requested his absence.

"Of course not. I hardly object to your proposition, and I certainly wouldn't mind having some company at this age." She smiled and gestured towards the cup with her head. "In the meantime, your tea has gone cold, as, I believe, have your students."

It took him a moment to process this statement, and when he did, he immediately jumped off the chair and walked angrily towards the front entrance.

"Other door," she said calmly, taking a sip from her cup.

"Right." He turned on his heals and walked back past her, went to the back door, and opened it.

The Soothsayer didn't even blink an eye as she head the six of them immediately try to come up with some sort of explanation, all at the same time. Said explanations ranged from everything to "We got lost," to "We thought this was Po's house," to finally, "It was all Mantis' idea!"

"I don't care whose idea it was, it was a terrible one!" Shifu snapped. "Haven't any of you ever heard of privacy?"

Mantis himself, who apparently had no social filter, said, "Right, sorry. You guys probably want some time _alone_."

"Yes, we- Oh, you are going to severely regret that, come tomorrow morning! All of you! Back to the Palace this instant, and if I so much as see hide or fur of you again tonight, you will all be training with me _personally _tomorrow! Understood?"

They all mumbled, "Yes, Master," and she heard them all walk away slowly, as if hoping to loiter long enough to catch a few more words of 'private' conversation. Shifu slammed the door shut and walked back to the table with a sigh.

"They'll be back," she said.

"I know." He sighed. "Believe me, I know."

Their conversation slowly drifted off into other topics, some somber, some making them chuckle, and they talked late into the night; so late, in fact, that Soothsayer eventually made another pot of tea. The hours passed quickly, and neither of them noticed the time fly by, both of them warm and more at peace then they had been in a long, long time.


	50. Chapter 50 Revenge Wars

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

They should've been expecting it.

Their tormentor knew this, too, looking at them all with unsuppressed satisfaction. "You should've been more observant. You made an enemy of me, and you expected no retribution?" said Tigress with a smirk.

"This is so not fair!" Monkey said, whining. "I can't believe you dyed my fur in my sleep!" He looked down at his magenta fur and died a little on the inside. "And it's market day! Everyone will see me like this."

"Stop your complaining!" Mantis snapped. "The dye only lasts a day; I'm ruined for life!"

"Well, if you hadn't been dating five girls at once…" Crane said. "By the way, Tigress, can I _please_ have my hat back?"

"I'll give you your hat and Viper her makeup back tomorrow." She'd gone the easiest on the two of them, as Crane hadn't teased her and Viper had tried to stop them.'

"Well, that's not so bad," Viper said fairly. "I guess it'll be a natural day then. If only it wasn't market day…"

"She did it on purpose," Po said. "C'mon, Tigress, this isn't fair! I didn't do anything!" He looked down at the words 'free hugs' on his stomach.

"I thought you liked hugs," Crane pointed out.

"I do!"

"So it's more the principle of the thing?"

Po nodded glumly. "I hate it when people get mad at me. 'Specially you guys."

"Oh, how sweet," Mantis said sarcastically. "I can't believe you told _all_ of my girlfriends about each other!"

"That's what you get for being a womanizer," Tigress said, smirking. "Now come on, let's go; Master wants us to pick up the vegetable order, and I'm sure the entire town wants to see you."

**That Night, at Dinner**

"I swear to all the gods I know, Tigress: you will regret this," Mantis moaned.

"Terrified," she said calmly, eating some of her soup.

"Come on, guys, it wasn't that bad," said Po.

"Speak for your self, Mr. Free Hugs," the bug snapped. "I got mobbed. Attacked. Violated!"

"I thought you liked getting violated," the rosy-hued simian sniggered.

"Shut up, Pink."

"It's purple, Player."

"It's magenta, both of you," Viper said, sighing. "Can I have my makeup back now?"

"And my hat?" Crane added.

"Yes; they're both in that cupboard." She pointed to one of the kitchen cabinets, and both of them quickly walked/slithered over.

"I'll pay you back for this," Mantis promised Tigress. "I will, don't you think I w-"

"Mantis, do you really want to get into a revenge war with me? Don't you remember the last time you tried that?" she said, seemingly unperturbed. "I might've taken some losses, but you came out on the losing end. Besides, what would you do? I don't own anything extremely valuable, I don't have a boyfriend, and there aren't any dirty little secrets for you to spread around about me, anyways."

"Yeah, 'cause you're such a goody-little-two-shoes," he retorted

She shrugged. "So I have a good reputation. Last I checked, that wasn't a crime. If I were you, I'd consider myself lucky and count us even."

Mantis scowled. "Fine…"

Tigress smirked, thinking back on the day….

The five girls- a bumblebee, a butterfly, a dragonfly, a ladybug, and (perhaps the most frightening) a black widow- had all surrounded Mantis furiously, demanding an explanation.

When the primate had bought a banana from a chuckling shop girl, who seemed to actually like his colorful fur.

The way she'd accepted the panda's offer of a 'free hug' herself.

At that memory, she felt her cheeks grow a little hot, and quickly directed her thoughts away. She stood up to clear her bowl-

At the same time she stood, so did Po. Neither looking where they were going, they crashed into each other and- like some horrible, cheesy play- accidentally kissed each other.

When they finally broke apart a few moments later, wide-eyed, neither knew what to say. 'Sorry' seemed like a good option, but it seemed that their mouths were currently short-circuited.

Mantis was the first to speak. "Looks like I just found some material, Tigress," he said, laughing. "I'm sure the village would love to know about this. Not to mention Master Shi-"

He jumped up and ran for the door as the tiger and the panda raced after him, yelling about revenge.


	51. Chapter 51 Dèjá Vu

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

It is an odd feeling, really.

Lying there awake, trying not to move for fear of waking her husband, Master Tigress suddenly has the strangest sense of déjà vu.

As the panda breathes in deeply, his arm around her with his fingers entwined in hers, she remembers, vaguely, of being in thi same position with another panda: a red one to be exact.

It had been a long time ago, after one of her frequent nightmares of Bao Gu, and the villagers, and fire- awful fire…

_That's right,_ she remembers, _I used to be prone to those._ She rarely has nightmares now…

Well, other than after battles. But then, they all get those, even if no one admits it. You can tell in the morning, by the red eyes and the circles under them. Nobody says anything, though. They all respect that privacy.

But now, now is not one of those moments. Now, everything is quietly perfect, her husband with his arm wrapped protectively around her, as if he can defend her even in his sleep. Just like her baba had done so long ago…

_ …He came running into the room, eyes wide, expecting an attacker. "Tigress!"_

_ "Baba!" the girl shrieked. "Baba- they- they're burning the Palace!" She was shaking, her hands covering her head. "They- the fire- AAAH!"_

_ He ran forward, almost as terrified as she, and jumped up onto her bed. "Who is?" he demanded._

_ "The villagers- they-" She cowered in his arms. "Fire! Everywhere!"_

_ He suddenly realized that the poor child was trapped in a waking dream. She could see the fire that wasn't there._

_ "Shh, shh," he said, trying to comfort her. "It's alright-"_

_ "The fire-"_

_ "There's no fire, Tigress. I promise you, there's no fire."_

_ "Baba-"_

_ "There's no fire," he said firmly. "Nobody's going to hurt you, I promise." He held her tightly, as if he could stop the tremors racing under her skin. "I won't let anyone hurt you: not now, not ever."_

_ Slowly, slowly, she calmed down, her heartbeat slowing. "I- I thought…" she mumbled._

_ "It's alright, Tigress. Everything's okay now." He still didn't let go of her. "You were just having a bad dream, that's all. It wasn't real."_

_ "Not… real?"_

_ "No. And even if it was, I would've protected you."_

_ "Mm…" she murmured. Slowly, her eyes drooped closed, and the last thing she remembered was thinking that she was safe here, in Baba's arms…_

Things have changed so much since then. In some ways, it frightens her a little, unsettles her. That a life so devoid of warmth could change so quickly, so suddenly, with no warning… it feels odd to her. But, as strange as it may be, she loves it. She loves the feeling that she is always surrounded, never alone, no matter how far away her friends may be.

She figured it out, one day, not so long ago: like a stone left in the sun, one's heart can soak in warmth, and let it surround and comfort her, even when the sources that share their warmth with her are far away.

And Master Shifu- no, Baba now, or is it again?- is suddenly so at peace. It surprises her, every single day. It has ever since Po defeated Tai Lung, two years ago. It reminds her of the way things were when she was younger, when she'd wake up screaming and sobbing in the middle of the night: Shifu, a strong, protective father, though she was taller than him, even then. Calm and at peace, as if he knows that everything will turn out okay in the end. She remembers Master Oogway being like that, and Po is that way, too. She thinks it must be Inner Peace.

But really, what is Inner Peace? She's felt it before- usually when she's with Po. That feeling that everything is still right within the universe, even if evil still runs rampant on the surface. It is an innate goodness that she knows exists in everything and everyone.

She thinks about it for a moment, trying to figure out exactly what this natural rightness is. It takes her a moment, as she rationalizes everything she knows about Inner Peace and the world she lives in.

Then, she figures it out; that great secret that seems to have eluded so many, including her. The ultimate fact of the universe, of life, of everything. It's so simple, really; surprisingly so:

Love.

**A/N: Okay, this was a request from Zayzay, though it didn't turn out quite the way I thought it would. Oh well. Hope you liked it.**


	52. Chapter 52 Blizzard

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

**To: Aronim (did I spell that right?)- okay, I'll work on the / thing. As for the line breaks with the location and time, that's more of a technical issue. You see, I can't do double-entered line breaks (the site just deletes them), and using asterisks or other symbols won't work, either, especially its centered. A lot of the time, I'll do 'KFP' as a line break, but I figured I could probably give it more of a purpose if I included the time and location. *shrugs* Like I said, it's a technical issue.**

**To: Mo- That is by far the funniest thing you've ever said. And that's saying something. : )**

**To: Smile- It's a good plotline, but a very generalized one. If I might make a suggestion, **_**you**_** should write it. It would be a great deal better coming from you.**

Po pulled his cloak tighter around himself, shivering in the cold that seeped through the stone cave wall behind him and into his bones. He glanced towards the mouth of the cave, where the blizzard still roared outside, and then at their small fire. He sent a quick prayer to the god`s, pleading for it not to go out.

His companion faired no better than he against the cold; in fact, she was more susceptible to it than him. Master Tigress was wrapped tight in her dark crimson cloak, but it seemed to be doing her little good as she shuddered in the cold, trying not to make a sound. The South-China Bengal's body was not built for withstanding these low of temperatures, no matter her determination (or stubbornness, as some might call it) to retain her image of invulnerability. As a Giant Panda, he was better built to resist the cold elements of the mountains, but even he was rapidly losing feeling in his fingers.

With a sigh, he stood up and walked over to her. She glanced up at him, surprised. "P-po? Is-s-something w-wrong?"

He winced. This was going to be awkward. "Look, um… we need to conserve body heat if we want to survive this. You know that as well as I do. So… can you give up your pride for a little while?"

"D-depends. What di-i-id you h-have in mind?"

He hesitated, and then sat down behind her. He crossed his legs and, before she could object, lifted her into the 'seat' and wrapped her in a bear hug.

"Po!" she gasped, shocked. "W-what are you-?"

"I'm cold and so are you. This is sort of our last option."

"Let go of me!" she struggled against his embrace for a moment, but the bitter, icy cold had rendered her body slow and had sapped most of her strength. After a few second, she gave up. "You are _s-s-so_ dead when we get b-back to the Palace!" she said, but she didn't sound all that angry.

There was a long, though not uncomfortable silence, before Tigress breathed in, as if she was about to say something, and then cut herself off.

"What?" Po asked.

"Nothing."

"No, seriously, what were you going to say?"

She hesitated. "I was just going to say…" She coughed, and then mumbled, "Your fur. It's very… warm."

"Oh," he said, surprised. "Um, yeah. I guess." He, too, was getting warmer by the minute, having her on his lap. "So, uh, is that better? I mean, are you not as cold now?"

"Yes; this helped a lot." She paused, and then said grudgingly, "Thank you, Po. I really appreciate it."

"Yeah, no problem. That's why I'm here, after all: Po Ping, the talking couch," he joked.

She laughed a little. "But are you cold?"

"Not really anymore. I mean, my back's a little cold, but I've got the cloak and stuff."

"Here." She pushed her paws up slightly under his arms and unclasped her cloak, sliding it out from between the two of them.

"No, Tigress, I'm fine-"

"Take it. You're keeping me warm, so I should at least do the same for you."

He gratefully accepted the cloak, wrapping it around his other one. It was a little small, but it covered his back and added another layer between him and the biting cold. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." She reached out and curled and uncurled her fingers in front of the fire, trying to get some life back into them. Po saw what she was doing and took her paws in his own to warm them up, blowing on them slightly.

Tigress went a brilliant shade of red under her fur and looked down at the ground. "Th-thank you," she stammered, and then cursed herself for getting flustered.

"Hey," Po said, his tone joking. "Did you just stutter?"

"Obviously not!"

"I think you did."

"I did not! It was the cold."

He grinned. "Aw, come on, I'm just pulling your leg!" When she said nothing, his grin turned to a worried frown. "Hey, I'm sorry."

She tried to assure him that it was alright, but found that she could hardly speak. "Never mind; It's fine," she said finally, forcing her mouth to move. _It must be the cold. It's distorting my senses…_

She looked into their small fire, watching it flicker and dance. The gold and orange flames lulled her into sort of a half-awake, half-asleep trance. The cave felt comfortably warm now, so much so that the blizzard outside began to sound like a lullaby, the flames seemed to be growing a little bigger, and Po was holding her so close…

"Tigress, are you… purring?"

Her eyes shot straight open. "_What?_ Of course not!" But even as she said it, she realized the mortifying truth: a low rumble was coming from her chest, and she was helpless to stop it.

"Yeah, you are!" Po said, surprised.

"W-well, so what if I am?" she demanded. "I've never been in such close proximity with a man before, it's a- a perfectly normal, biological reaction!"

"Okay. Whatever you say." But when she twisted her head to look at him, he still had that smug grin on his face.

"It is!"

"I know."

"Then _why _do you have that infuriating look on your face?" she demanded angrily.

The grin grew wider. "Because you're still purring, and this is seriously one of the most awesome moments of my life."

"If you tell any of the others about this, I swear, Po Ping-"

"Naw, I won't. But it's still totally cool, to think that I can make _The_ Master Tigress purr."

"Whoever said it was you?" she shot back. "Maybe I'm just happy to be warm again."

"Yep. Warm because you're… what did you say? 'In such close proximity' to me?"

She couldn't really respond to that, so she just growled. Unfortunately, said growl was rather pitiful, and it was undermined even more by the howling storm outside.

"Hey, take it easy," Po said good-naturedly. "I'm just messing with you."

"Well, _stop_."

"You need to get a sense of humor." Before she could retort, he added, "I mean one aside from your sarcasm."

"I like my sarcasm."

He laughed a little. "So do I. But it gets a little mean sometimes."

"Whoever told you I was a nice person?" she shot back.

"Come on, Tigress, you can't fool me. You're just a big softy under all that hard-core, aren't ya?" He poked her in the stomach. "You're a fluffy, furry, fuzzy-wuzzy-"

"Alright, alright, you got me!" she said, scowling. "But when we get home, this never happened."

"Nope. Never." There was another moment or two of silence, before he said, "Well, if this never happened…" He leaned down and lightly kissed the top of her head.

Tigress shot straight up, her back like a plank. "Po!" she hissed, snapping her head around to look him in the eyes. "What the _hell_ do you think you're doing?"

He winced. "Okay, maybe that was crossing the line, but- but if you kill me, the others will get suspicious!"

"Po-"

"A-and Master Shifu will wonder what happened, and then you'll have to explain-"

"Po!" she shouted, cutting him off. "I never said I was going to kill you!"

He blinked. "You mean, you won't?"

"Of course not. But," and here, her eyes glinted slightly, like they did whenever she had a really clever battle strategy in her head, "You're doing it all wrong."

He stared at her, dazed. "Wha-"

"You're supposed to do it," she said, "Like _this._" She reached up and kissed him gently on the lips.

When she pulled away, he said, "Whoa."

"You see?"

"Uh-huh. But, like … _whoa_."

She smirked. "Do you want to give it another try?"

After explaining themselves to the others the next morning (the four and Master Shifu had formed a search party), the Grandmaster of Kung Fu could only shake his head, thinking it lucky they had decided to keep it at kissing, especially considering the position they'd found them in: sitting in front of a burned-out fire with their backs to the cave wall, fast asleep in each other's arms.


	53. Chapter 53 Bridge

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

**A/N: Short little oneshot set after the bridge scene in KFP 1, where Tigress is the only one left standing out of the Five. What if Tai Lung had said more to her, that we didn't see?**

The fight was over, and she knew it. Her breath was ragged, she was tiring quickly, and her friends were incapacitated, unable to help.

He was stronger, faster, a better fighter. Tai Lung watched her, smirking, as her friends lay unconscious behind her. "Come now, Tigress; you know you can't defeat me."

"Try me," she hissed.

"Haven't I already? I've escaped your little bridge trap, tired you out, and dispatched your friends quite easily. Though I'll admit, you're a bit more of a challenge than them."

"You despicable- foul-"

"Don't lose your temper," he said, in a sing-song voice. "You know what happens when you lose your temper, Tigress."

"Shut up," she snarled. "You're a fool, Tai Lung."

"Oh, I'm the fool, now am I?" he said, relaxing against the tree, allowing her to catch her breath. "Haven't you figured it out by now, Tigress? You're not the Dragon Warrior. You _never were_."

"I could say the same to you," she said coldly.

At this, his face changed, and she knew she'd hit a nerve. "I am the Dragon Warrior," Tai Lung said in a low, dangerous voice. "Oogway was a crazy, foolish old man."

"You dare talk about him like that?" she said, furious. "You're lucky he's passed on, Tai Lung, or I would kill you for saying that! I may still."

"Oh, relax, little sister," Tai Lung said evenly, his voice returning to normal. "There's nothing you can do, now that you're no longer Shifu's little favorite." She snarled, but he continued on. "Don't you get it? Your precious 'Father' never loved you. You think he cared about you? You think that anyone does? Nobody cares about you, nobody wants you, and nobody has, does, or ever will love you. You're _nothing._"

That was when she snapped. Roaring, she lunged at him, fury overtaking her control and sending her into a wild, irrational frenzy. Playing right into his paws.

He blocked her attack and back-fisted her, directly in the chest. Tigress let out a sharp gasp as she felt at least four ribs break. The pain was excruciating, and for a moment, she forgot where she was and what she was doing, the agony blasting away all other thought.

The moment's distraction was all he needed. He pinned her, kneeling on her stomach with her hands under his knees and one of his paws around her throat, strangling her.

"Run home to daddy, Little Sister," he hissed, and then struck her with his nerve-attack, and all her senses shorted out.


	54. Chapter 54 Thunderstorm

Thunder

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

It was obvious to anyone in the kitchen that the tiger master was pissed. There was no other word for it, except for maybe _lethal_. And to be frank, she had every right to be: soaked to the bone, her fur dripping wet, hungry, and wincing at every clap of thunder was _not_ Master Tigress' idea of a good time.

And, of course, a smart-arse insect wasn't helping, either.

"Aw, is the wittow kitty afwaid of thundow?" Mantis said, hopping onto Tigress' head and pulling one of her ears.

She tried to knock him off her head, but he just merely jumped out of the way and back on the table. "Jeez, it was just a joke. Lighten up, scaredy-cat."

WHAM! Her fist hit where he'd been just nanoseconds before.

"Tigress, you know thunder's just a noise, right?" Monkey pointed out.

She glared at him. "Yes, I'm well aware that thunder is 'just a noise,' thank you very much!" she snapped. "It's a form of energy released when air is heated rapidly-*"

BOOM! She clapped her hands over her ears, letting out a yowl she managed to cut short, in an attempt to retain at least a little pride.

"Come on, guys, don't make fun of her," Po reproached them, as he tried to start some damp wood for a fire. He, too, was soaking wet; he and Tigress had been coming back from the village when the downpour had struck. "I'm sure if you guys had ears like hers, it'd freak you out, too."

"I'm not. Freaking. Out," she ground out.

"Hey, where's Master Shifu?" Crane pointed out. "We haven't seen him since the storm hit; this can't be pleasant for him, either."

"I wonder if he's afraid of the big, bad thunder, too," Mantis asked innocently.

"Oh, that's it!" Tigress yelled, standing up.

"What are you gonna do?" he said, not all that worried for once. "It's raining, we're in a tight little kitchen, and every time you try to do anything, you get scared of the thunder!"

"Well, I bet it's not all that fun to be stuck out in the rain when the drops are the size of your eyes!" she hissed. "Because believe me, bug, we can arrange that."

"Take it easy, you two," Viper said. "This isn't fun for any of us. Po, how's the fire coming?"

"Almost- got it- there!" he said triumphantly, as a tiny flame caught on to the damp wood. It smoked more than burned, true, but that little heat was enough to warm the cold, damp kitchen. He closed the door to the stove fire, grinning. "Man, am I good!"

BOOM! Another loud roll of thunder rumbled through the air around them and the floor under their feet. Tigress gritted her teeth and tried not to shout, her paws doing little to block the thunder which was, to her, positively deafening.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to find Po looking at her, his eyes narrowed with concern. "You okay?" he said. Though she couldn't hear it, she could read his lips.

"I'm- fine-" she managed to get out, before the loudest clap of thunder yet exploded, seeming to come from right above them. She jerked involuntarily, and accidentally knocked her chair over backwards, with her still in it.

Everyone stared in shock for a moment, before Mantis and Monkey started to laugh. "Jeez, Tigress," Mantis chortled. "It's not that ba-"

"Hey," Po said, cutting him off. Mantis looked back, surprised. "You leave her alone." He knelt down beside her, where she was trying to get back up and cursing in mandarin like a sailor. "Here," he said, offering her a paw. She looked at him, surprised, and then took it. He helped her to her feet.

"Thanks," she said grudgingly.

"No prob." There was an awkward silence, before the thunder clapped again, and she winced, her paws clenching into tight fists as she fought the urge to cover her ears with them again. She wasn't looking at him, but rather at the floor, red in the cheeks with shame.

"You know," he said, drawing her gaze back to him, "I don't like thunder, either."

"You don't?" she said, surprised.

"Nope. Never have. And besides, it can't be fun, having ears like yours and having to listen to this stuff." He grinned, reaching up and tweaking one of her furry orange ears.

She gave just the smallest little chuckle and a rueful smirk, before somebody coughed.

They both turned to look at the others, and both blushed a brilliant shade of red as they realized that every last one of their mouths were wide open.

"Well," said Crane (who, of course, had been the cougher), "Not to be rude, but I think I'm going to go take a walk." He headed rather hurriedly for the door.

"Yeah," Viper agreed. "I hear that rain is supposed to be good for, um, scales."

"See you guys later," Monkey said, following the snake and the bird out into the downpour."

Mantis, of course, was the last to go. "You know what they say about rainy days," he said in a sing-song voice, before closing the door on the way out.

There was a long moment of silence, before Po said, "What _do_ they say about rainy days?"

Tigress was about to answer when she stopped and thought. "You know what? I have absolutely no idea."

*** Thank you, Apple dictionary on my laptop.**


	55. Chapter 55 Fenghuang

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda (Legends of Awesomeness or otherwise). I make no money off of this.

He pulled out the old leather folder and opened it with a sigh. This was a bad idea; why should he go about dragging up old memories?

And yet, as his thin, white hands opened the folder and he caught the scent of her perfume, a thousand blissful days filled his mind. Another sigh, happier this time, escaped his mouth, and he pulled out one of the sheets of paper.

It was a list of scored; their marks from one of the testing days. Two were circled in red: the highest marks of the five. One, _Shifu,_ had a 98% by it. The second, _Fenghuang,_ a 99%.

Both had advanced a rank that day, earning their titles of Master.

He took out another sheet, this one smaller, with hasty characters scrawled on it, as if the writer had been afraid of being caught. It was simple, direct: _I love you._

Beside the characters was a slight burn mark. Shifu remembered that; he'd accidentally knocked over the candle he'd been writing by, nearly setting the barracks on fire.

The next was a sheet written on foreign paper: a letter from Fenghuang when she was on mission in Japan. At the bottom were the words, _With love, Fenghuang._

More and more papers, flirting, passionate, friendly, humorous, loving. He flipped through them, relishing in those happy memories.

Then, the bottom of the folder, and one last paper.

This one was thicker, and had no words on it. Rather, there was an image: a picture of him and Fenghuang, both seventeen, covered in snow and laughing, their arms around each other.

His smile faded as he stared at the painting. This was only one year before she'd turned on them all, even him. He couldn't believe it. He'd thought she'd cared for him.

He'd thought she loved him.

"So. You and Fenghuang, huh?"

He turned around, surprised. Po was standing in the doorway.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" he snapped.

Po didn't listen; instead, he walked inside the room and stood beside Shifu, looking down at the picture. There was a long pause, before the panda said, "Master Shifu, I'm real sorry."

"So am I," the red panda agreed.

"Wanna talk about it?"

Shifu shot him a look, but Po just stood there expectantly. The old master sighed. "We were Oogway's best students, as well as the best of friends. We arrived around the same time, and were both twelve years of age; we bonded quickly. As the others came to the Palace through the years, they saw how close we were, and were constantly making jokes about the two of us being a 'couple.'" He chuckled. "We always rebuked them for it, but one day, she said, 'I don't suppose we could give it a try?'"

"So you guys started going out?"

Shifu nodded. "In secret, of course; there would've been Hell to pay if the others had found out. But Oogway knew." He shrugged. "I never quite found out how he discovered our relationship, but he did nonetheless.

"We courted for about a year. Then, one day, Oogway came up to me after training. He said he'd had a vision, a vision that Fenghuang would turn on us." Shifu shook his head. "I didn't believe him. I told him he must be wrong, that Fenghuang would never betray us. He said that fate was repeating itself, that he'd seen this many times before, and that until the Break came, the chain would repeat itself."

"The Break?" Po said, confused.

"A disturbance in the path history seems determined to take. He was never quite clear on what it was; I'm not even sure if he knew. In any case, he asked me, should Fenghuang turn on us, would I allow him to do what must be done, for the sake of the Valley?" Here, his eyes closed. "I told him that yes, I would, but it would never happen. He only smiled sadly and said, 'let us hope so.' The next day, Fenghuang challenged him to a duel. She lost, but as she flew away, she shouted at me. She… she called me a traitor."

Silence filled the room.

"I loved her," Shifu said quietly, to himself. "I thought she felt the same way. Her betrayal was… devastating."

"I'll bet," Po said, just as softly.

"It was Tai Lung that finally healed my heart, three years later. Becoming a father gave me something to take my mind off it, and that allowed me to move on. And then… twenty years later, once again, I was betrayed. Once bitten, twice shy. Twice bitten… always walled."

"So that's why," Po muttered.

Shifu, of course, heard it. "What do you mean?"

"Well…" He hesitated. "How do I say this? Okay… After Tai Lung betrayed you, you became sort of… cold. Especially towards Tigress."

Shifu let out a heavy sigh. "I know. I just wanted to protect her from making the mistakes I'd made not once, but twice. It seemed that the people I loved always got hurt… so I chose not to love. Or at least, not to let her know." He frowned, obviously troubled. "But I can't tell whether it's done any good. She is the strongest of the Five, and therefore most in danger of being persuaded to turn on us…" He looked Po dead in the eyes. "Po, I know how much you… admire… Master Tigress."

Po went red. "I don't-"

"Don't play games, with me, Dragon Warrior. I am not a fool." He pinched the bridge of his nose with his paw. "If Tigress does betray us… do you agree to let me do what I'll have to do?"

Po nodded. "Yeah. But, I don't think you'll have to worry about that."

"Po-"

"I know you think I'm in denial, just like you were with Fenghuang. But believe me, Master Shifu, Tigress isn't like that. She's not Fenghuang, and she's not Tai Lung. She would never betray us… especially not you."

Shifu sighed, nodded. "I know. I just needed some… reassurance." He looked away, out the window, staring at something Po couldn't see. "I don't want to see the people I love hurt or be hurt again."

There was a moment's silence, and then Po said, "Master? Do you still, you know, like her?"

"No… that's gone now. I still miss her, as a friend, but I miss the person she was, not who she became. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah. It makes a lot of sense." He put a paw down on the old man's shoulder and said, "You know, Master Oogway told me something a while ago: 'yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today-'"

"'Is a gift,'" Shifu finished. "'That is why it's called the present.'"

"Uh-huh," Po agreed. "C'mon, Master; let's leave yesterday where it belongs."

Shifu nodded, and, gently, reached out and closed the folder. He put the folder back in the storage box, and, leaving the room, followed Po back to the barracks.

_El Fín_


	56. Chapter 56 Tear Tracks

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. I make no money off of this.

"C'mon, _please?_"

She sighed. "No."

"B-but Master Po told us stories!"

She raised an eyebrow. "Well, he shouldn't have."

"Please, Master Tigress? Please please please? With a cherry on top!"

The tiger master chuffed*. "You children need to focus and gain discipline. That's only ever achieved through hard work."

One particularly small rabbit girl looked at her wide-eyed. Tigress was sure for a moment that she was going to say something along the lines of 'please?' She was also dead wrong.

Instead, the little girl asked, "Master Tigress? Do you cry a lot?"

She blinked, surprised. "What? No, of course not. Why would you think that?"

The bunny shrugged. "Well, you've got tear tracks on the inside of your eyes. I just thought that was how you'd gotten them. So how did you?"

"I- I don't know," she said, caught a little off guard by the question. "I was born with them."

"But you have to know! How did you get them, Master Tigress?"

The other kids quickly chimed in. "Yeah? How did you get those? Where did they come from?"

Tigress thought for a moment about how to shut them up. "Alright, you kids want a story?"

"Yeah!" they all chorused.

"Hm… well, I guess I do have one story for you." She sat down on the steps of the courtyard and said, "All of you, take a seat, and no talking."

They all obediently sat down, quiet as mice. Tigress situated herself so that she was comfortable and then said, "Once upon a time, in a kingdom far away, there lived a little tiger girl.

"Now, this little girl was a lot different from the other tigers. You see while they were all red, she was orange.

** "**When they were little, all the children of the kingdom were sent to a big school, where they learned how to be good children. Once a month, the grown-ups would come and take some of the good little boys and girls home. All of those kids would brush their fur all nice and shiny, and they'd eat a lot of apples and tomatoes before, to make their fur extra red. But no matter how many apples and tomatoes the little girl ate, her fur stayed very orange, and so no one would ever take her home."

"But why was orange fur so bad?" one of the bunnies asked, frowning.

"Well, orange fur meant that this girl was born from very bad demons, and a lot of times, she would accidentally curse people without trying. They would get hurt, or their things would be broken, or stuff like that. Anyway, she would always be sent to her room when the grown-ups came, so that no one would get cursed. Every month, she'd watch the children be taken home, and she would cry.

"Now, because she was a demon, her heart was very black, and her tears were black, too. They would stain the fur around her eyes very black, and that's why tigers all have black markings on their fur. The end." She stood back up. "Now, let's get back to training."

"No!" the kids all cried.

"You have to tell us the rest of the story!" one of the bunnies pleaded.

"The rest of the story? That's the end. There isn't any more."

"But there _has_ to be," another protested. "That's not a happy ending."

"Well, not all stories have happy endings," she said, beginning to get impatient.

"But what about the little tiger girl?" another said. "After all, we don't have any red tigers around here! How did you end up all orange and stuff?"

Tigress thought for a moment, and then said, "You know what? You're right. There is more to the story." She sat down again and started to talk again.

"Well one day, one of the grown-ups came to the school and asked to see the little girl. The teachers took him to her.

"This grown up was very strange, you see; he had very, very big feet, so he sort of walked funny. At first, the little girl was very angry, and she told him to go away, but she was really just very lonely. So the man with the big feet asked her to play a game with him: Mahjong.

"This wasn't any ordinary game of Mahjong, though; all of its tiles had instructions on how to not curse people, and how to be a good demon. They played for a long time, and soon, she'd learned how to use her powers for good.

"After that, all the children started asking her to play with them, because her special powers made their games much more interesting. After this, the man with big feet went away. One day, though, almost all of the children left with the adults, leaving her all alone with no one to play with. And she was lonely again.

"She started to play with the old mahjong set by herself. Just as she laid down the first tile, another was placed beside it, and she saw that it was the man with big feet. She smiled and gasped, and he asked if she'd like to come live with him and help a lot of people with her powers, like he did. She said yes, and they went off to a far-off kingdom, where she helped lots and lots of people with her magical powers.

"But even though she was no longer a bad child, she was still sad at times, and cried her black tears. The reason she cried was because her teacher with the big feet had once had another little boy in his class. This little boy had grown up using his powers for good, and he was very skillful, but there was an ultimate secret that he hadn't had: the Final Tile. This tile had the secret to limitless magical powers, and he'd wanted it very badly. One day, when he was almost all grown-up, he'd tried to get the tile, using his powers for evil."

"Did he get it?" one of the bunnies asked, wide-eyed.

"No. The Great Teacher- a wise and powerful teacher, who had a magical wand he could use against any opponent, had stopped him, and had sent him far away, to live alone in the mountains.

"As the little girl grew up, her big-footed teacher became more and more angry, and she thought it was with her. She never asked why, but one day, he told her that she was very much like the other little boy, and he thought that she would get the Final Tile.

"Not long after, the Great Teacher had a vision: the boy would come back, and someone had to stop him. There was a contest of magical powers from all the students, to see who would get the Final Tile.

"As the girl, now not so little anymore, was about to show the Great Teacher her powers, another man, a panda, suddenly ran in, out of breath. 'Who got the Tile?' he asked. 'Who got the Tile?'

"And just like that, the Great Teacher told him that he had."

All the kids gasped. "But the tiger was going to get the Tile!" one of them protested.

"That's not very fair!" said another.

Tigress held up a paw. "You haven't let me finish," she said. "You see, the Universe wanted him to have the Final Tile."

"Ohhhh," all the children said in unison.

"Now, she was very mad, and she went to her room that night and cried her black tears again, where nobody could see. When the man walked by her door, she yelled at him to go away forever.

"He didn't go away, though. He stayed and, no matter how hard he tried, kept on annoying all of them. Then, one night, the Great Teacher went to Heaven." All the children's faces grew sad. One little girl sniffled. "The tiger seemed to be angry, but really, she was very afraid. But, she knew that if the Evil One reached the village, he would destroy everyone and everything, so she forced herself to not be afraid- or at least, not on the outside. She and all the others left to try to reach the Evil One before he could get there. But the Evil One beat them all, and sent them back.

"Now, the man with big feet had been training the panda in magic while they were all away, and when they finally came back, he decided to give the panda the Final Tile. The Tile was on top of a tall mountain that could only be made by creating a tornado with the Great Teacher's wand of power, which he had left them when he went to Heaven. The man with big feet made the tornado and got the Final Tile. He gave it to the panda." She leaned in close. "Do you want to know what the tile said?"

They all nodded eagerly.

"The tile said-" She looked around, and then said, "Nothing!"

They all gasped. "Nothing?" one boy demanded.

"But that's not possible!"

"I thought it had magical powers!"

Tigress nodded. "That was what the tiger thought, too. But the tile was blank. She didn't understand… But she knew that the Evil One was coming, and that everyone had to get away.

"The man with big feet said he would stay and fight the Evil One, even though it would kill him."

"What?" the kids all said.

"She wanted to protest, but it would be no use. The man with big feet bowed to them all and said how proud he was of them all. It was the first time he'd ever said he was proud of her… and, she knew, the last." Tigress grew quiet for a moment. "They all bowed back, and then they left.

"She told the others what to do to get the villagers out, and then started out down the pass alone. She found a small child and realized that the poor kid was lost, the parents nowhere to be found. She started to lead him along with her.

"They walked all night, the tiger occasionally talking to the others. When dawn was drawing near, she asked, 'Where is the panda?' Nobody had seen him. She started to ask more and more, but nobody knew where he was. Suddenly, she realized that he'd gone back to fight the Evil One.

"Right at that moment, a huge rush of wind nearly knocked her off her feet. She guarded the child from it, and realized that something had happened in the village. She and the others quickly headed back, followed by the villagers.

"When the dust from the wind cleared, the panda was left standing in the light from the rising sun, and the Evil One was gone."

All the kids cheered. Tigress held up a paw, quieting them.

"The story isn't done yet. The tiger bowed to the panda and called him 'Teacher.' The panda laughed and said 'Teacher?' Then, suddenly, he said, 'The man with big feet! He's hurt!' He started to run back.

"The tiger followed him, arriving a few minutes later (she was helping some villagers), and found both of them lying quite still on the ground. She was worried for a moment they'd died, but then saw that they were breathing. She was very, very happy.

"From there, they had many more adventures, but that was the first, the beginning. I would be happy to tell you them, but we really do need to get back to training." The children groaned.

"But how did orange tigers get here?" one protested.

She thought for a moment. "One day, their adventures led them to this valley, and they decided they would very much like to live here. So they settled down and had many children, one of which is yours truly. And that is why tigers are orange, and why we have black tear marks. The end." She stood up. "Now, let's train!"

They all grudgingly got up and, she started to instruct them on proper punching techniques. "When you punch, you want a slight bend in the elbow, so you don't hyperextend- that means hurt, Lao Chu- your arm…"

**That Night**

She walked into her room after dinner, positively exhausted. Those hyperactive little bunnies had worn the warrior right out of her, and right now she would've been very happy to hear she'd never have to see another training dummy ever again.

She lit the lamp in her room to find her sleeping clothes. As she pulled the flat, wooden box out from under her bed that had her clothes in it, she saw a small green and red tube lying on the clothes: the Dragon Scroll.

Surprised, she picked it up. "That's strange… even Po wouldn't be forgetful enough to leave it here, of all places." She hesitated a moment, and then opened it, tilting its contents into her paw.

As expected, the Scroll slipped out, but so did another piece of paper. It read:

_Dear Tigress,_

_ I bet the panda was real sorry he took the Tile away from the tiger. I'm sure he didn't mean to do it. But it sort of sounded like she was okay with it. I hope so, because I think they really cared about each other, ya know? Anyway, do you think you'd mind holding onto this for a while? You know how forgetful I am; I don't wanna lose it. Haha, can you imagine what Master Shifu would do? He'd KILL me! Thanks!_

_ -Po_

_ P.S. I hope the tiger stopped crying after that- or, if she did, she let him cry with her._

She slowly lowered the two scrolls in her paw and placed them on the floor.

As she left the room, the ink on the more important paper began to run and stain the paper, fading the words and turning their white background into a pale indigo watercolor, from the tears that had landed on them in her haste.

**A/N: That's the technical term for a tiger's growl.**


End file.
